Board of Directors
Oluwasoromidayo George
Director (Non-Executive)
Oluwasoromidayo George is currently the Corporate Affairs Director for Unilever Nigeria Plc. Her portfolio as the Corporate Affairs Director for Unilever in Nigeria covers Corporate Communications, which includes external communications (including media management), internal communications, sustainability, external affairs and Investor Relations.
She has over 20 years of working experience in different sectors cutting across banking, non-profit work, consulting and FMCG sector. She has worked as a sub-consultant on a World Bank project (Bureau of Public Enterprise, Nigeria; Adam Smith and Raitas Communications Limited) and has written and published articles & reports on Poverty, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development, Stakeholder, Social, Environmental reports and various guidelines and strategy documents for a number of projects locally. She was an alternate secretary on the National ISO 26000 Mirror Committee on Social Responsibility in Nigeria and a member of the Business Advisory Council at the Business Faculty of the University of Lagos.
She has a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Lagos; a Master’s Degree in Corporate Communications and Public Affairs from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen; a post-graduate diploma in Management from the University of Lagos and a certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from the World Bank Institute. She has also attended courses in CSR including the CSR Workshop in Harvard Business School, Social Enterprise Initiative.
She is the co-founder of the CSR & Governance Institute and an Associate member of WIMBIZ. She also sits as a member on the Nigeria Economic Summit Group Agriculture Commission and Forum on oil and gas revenue for development (FOGARD)
Oluwasoromidayo has been at the forefront of raising the CSR profile in Nigeria, she has written several articles, which have been published in the national dailies and others through the social media. She also pioneered the first CSR newsletter in Nigeria, and was awarded the first award for the best CSR practitioner in Nigeria by the prestigious Social Enterprise and Reporting Awards committee.
She is a philanthropist who is passionate about issues that involve advocacy for the wellbeing and rights of the poor and vulnerable groups and sustainable development in emerging economies.
Professor Adesoji Adesugba
Director (Non-Executive)
Professor Adesoji Adesugba is an Investment Promotion and Economic Development specialist, advising clients from Canada, Nigeria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. He lectures part time at the Baden International Business School, Baden Switzerland where he is an Associate Professor.
In September 2009 Adesoji was appointed to the Board of the International Institute for Investment Promotion (IIIP). His career includes Founder/CEO, Canada Africa Investment Advisory Services, Canada; Partner at Direct Investment Advisory Services, Switzerland; Associate Director, Sandown Corporate, UK; Executive Advisor to the Chairman of the Chrome Group, Nigeria; Project Coordinator, Badagry Creek Integrated Industrial Park, Nigeria; Chairman at the Nigerian Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP); Technical Adviser to the Nigerian Minister of Labour and Productivity; Director at the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC); Head, Marketing, Communication and External Relations at the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigeria; Chief Superintendent at the Nigeria Customs Service.
Adesoji holds M.Sc. in Investment Promotion and Economic Development, LL.B. and BL. in Law, B.Sc. in Business administration and MBA in Management. He is a DBA candidate at the California Southern University, Irvine California. His professional affiliations include the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), the Houston Maritime Arbitrators Association (USA), the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria.
He has attended various executive management courses including Chinese economic development at the Normal University in Beijing (2000) and a diploma in International Commercial Arbitration at the Keble College, Oxford University (2010).
Mr. Lai Yahaya
Director (Non-Executive)
Lai Yahaya is a lawyer, development economist and policy entrepreneur who advises government leaders and senior policy makers on economic reform, energy sector restructuring, privatisation, public sector reform and public financial management issues in Africa.
He is currently Team Leader of President Obama's Power Africa Senior Advisors Group, providing advice to the governments on power sector reforms, and an advisor to the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform (FOSTER), a donor-funded initiative designed to support the restructuring of the oil and gas sector and to increase transparency and accountability in oil sector governance in Nigeria. He is also a Director of Africa 2.0, the leading network of emerging leaders from Africa and the diaspora.
Prior to this, Lai was an associate with the global project finance team of the New York law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and General Counsel of the London Stock Exchange-listed African gas player, Gasol. He then worked with the Nigerian privatization agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises; as Deputy Director/Special Assistant and advisor to former Nigerian Ministers of Power and National Planning; and for several years on the power sector reform programme, on the development of sector policy, legislation and the landmark Roadmap for Power Sector Reform.
He received his BA (Hons) and MA from Balliol College, Oxford University, was a Yale World Fellow in 2013 and Gleitsman Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2010. He is also a Fellow of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu/Oxford Business School Leadership Programme (2009) and was designated a New Leader for Tomorrow by the Council of Europe-affiliated Fondation du Forum Universale in 2010.