Our Board

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is the managing partner of Sahel Consulting which is committed to transforming the agriculture and nutrition landscapes in Africa. She is also the co-founder of AACE Foods, which processes spices, flours and snacks made from the best herbs, vegetables and cereals in West Africa. She is the founder of LEAP Africa which inspires, empowers and equips a new cadre of principled, disciplined and dynamic young leaders and works in six African countries. 

Ndidi started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, working in their Chicago, New York and Johannesburg Offices. She holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow.

Ndidi was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Schwab Social Innovator (2020), and received a National Honor from the Nigerian Government. Ndidi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Nigerian Breweries Plc. (Heineken), Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. India, Fairfax Africa Holdings Canada, BusinessDay Newspapers, Royal DSM Sustainability Board, Netherlands, the Center for Memories and the African Philanthropy Forum.

Ndidi is the author of “Social Innovation in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact," published by Routledge. She is a TED Global speaker and her work has been featured on CNN, BBC and a range of international and local media outlets.

Ehouman Kassi, is a seasoned banker with 25 years of banking experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, including 17 years in leadership position covering both businesses and geographies.

He has more than 17 years experience as Managing Director or Business Head, of which 9 in commercial banking and 8 years in corporate finance, structured finance/investment banking and Trade Finance, covering Anglophone and Francophone countries in Africa. For over 16 years, Ehouman has actively sat on Boards in various countries including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Benin and France.

Ehouman has worked in 7 African and European countries and transacted in more than 20 of them. Ehouman is a result oriented and passionate about clients and Africa. He enjoys fresh challenges and demonstrated success in team building, business development and turnaround management

Ehouman KASSI holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Abidjan & Paris XII, and completed the Executive Management Training of INSEAD (France/Singapore).

Ike has been in senior corporate and consulting roles for the past 15 years, and heads iGate Consulting, a firm he founded to serve clients’ requirements for customised advisory and implementation expertise in governance operations & systems, project management and risk management.

In the years preceding iGate, Ike held senior roles on international development projects, serving as Country Manager and Director of Operations for the Business Innovation Facility (BIF), a 7-year DFID-funded programme of innovative collaborations across food value chains, aimed at enhancing economic opportunities for the poor. He also served on the board of the Convention on Business Integrity (CBi) and played a significant role, in partnership with the Nigeria Stock Exchange, in the development and implementation of the Corporate Governance Rating System (CGRS). Ike also led the design and implementation of the Micronutrient Fortification Index (MFI), working with leading Nigerian food processing corporations to improve compliance with mandatory food fortification requirements.

In addition to his extensive consulting roles, Ike has been a qualified legal practitioner for over 25 years, and is a partner with the law firm, Prof Charles U. Ilegbune & Co (SAN). Prior to his return to Nigeria in 2012, he was with Serco Group plc as a Principal in its management consulting subsidiary, following several years of work across the UK public sector in central and local government roles.

Ike holds degrees in Law from the University of Nigeria (LLB) and the London School of Economics & Political Science (LLM). He also holds a masters’ degree in public administration (MPA) from the University of Warwick Business School. He is a certified project manager and also holds a diploma in Lean Systems from the University of Cardiff.

Isis Nyong'o Madison, based in Nairobi, is concurrently a Principal at Asphalt & Ink, a strategic advisory firm she founded to assist corporations, start-ups, governments, and non-profit organizations operating in Africa. She also serves as Non-Executive Director of the Nairobi Securities Exchange, East Africa's leading securities exchange, and as a Non-Executive Director at Finserve Africa.

Considered a thought leader on technology, Ms. Nyong’o has worked with InMobi, Google, and MTV in Africa. As InMobi’s Vice President and Managing Director for Africa, she developed and drove mobile advertising business strategy, with a focus on Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. At Google, Ms. Nyong’o developed and built strategic mobile and local content partnerships to distribute Google products, negotiating and closing over a dozen licensing deals with content owners from various sectors.

Previously, Ms. Nyong’o served as Senior Strategy and Commercial Manager for Africa and successfully led MTV Network’s commercial entry into Africa.

She was named one of “Africa’s Most Powerful Women” by Forbes and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Ms. Nyong’o earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. 

Jolene Dawson is a skilled strategist, advisory professional and CEO. Her business, Thrive Agriculture and Nutrition Consulting, is focused on agricultural development, working with iNGO’s, donors, foundations and companies to plan, design and implement system-level programmes to address food security and farmer development and access to quality balanced nutrition.

Jolene brings over 17 years of experience from the retail, agriculture, science, telecommunications, financial and development sectors together and uses this unique perspective to deliver leading market entry and growth strategies, cross-sector partnerships, value chain assessments and project implementation support.

Having worked at Accenture for over 10 years, Jolene has a keen knowledge of relevant agricultural technologies from remote sensing and precision agriculture to permaculture and other innovative Climate Smart agricultural practices. Jolene has been a keynote speaker at Xprize focused on the Grand Challenge of empowering smallholder farmers and BioAfrica Convention on creating market access for smallholder farmers, at the Farmers Weekly annual conference about the impact and opportunity that agriculture technology offers African farmers, and contributes to AgriLeaders magazine on how digital technology is becoming a part of everyday agricultural life.

Based in Johannesburg, she has worked mainly across the SADC region, including Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe but also has experience in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Argentina and Japan. Jolene holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Microbiology and Zoology from Rhodes University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Wits Business School.

Patrick is a Senior Business Leader with more than 20 years of experience in food, beverage, and FMCG blue chip companies and is currently serving as the Regional Marketing Director for Unilever Francophone Africa. As such, he is responsible for developing products, brands and revenues of the company’s 3 business categories (Food, Detergents and Personal Care) in Ivory Coast and in the surrounding 24 francophone markets.

Before joining Unilever, Patrick worked as Key Account and Business Development Director with Tetra Pak, the leading carton packaging provider. During his time at Tetra Pak West Africa, he supported product development and manufacturing capability for established beverage and dairy businesses like Chi in Nigeria and Kirène in Senegal, and also helped regional entrepreneurs setting up greenfield manufacturing projects. Prior to that, Patrick had held various regional and local commercial and marketing roles at Philip Morris and Diageo, leading companies in the tobacco and alcoholic beverages industry, in France, the UK, Cote d’Ivoire, Switzerland and Senegal.

Patrick holds a Master’s in Management from ESCP Europe. Working with top players in their respective industries, he developed first-hand business skills including strategic planning, brand and sales management, consumer insight generation, route to market and product development. A supporter of upcoming African small businesses, he’s a member of the Dakar Business Angel Network and also advises a couple of African Start-ups. A Benin and French National, he has travelled extensively, nurturing and developing an effective leadership style, rooted in his deep understanding of both African and Western (corporate) cultures. Patrick is passionate about music and sports, he trained in martial arts and more recently tennis and yoga. He currently resides in Cote d’Ivoire with his family.

Temitope is an Associate Partner at Sahel Consulting where he is responsible for client engagement, project management and implementation. He is passionate about the agribusiness sector and has worked extensively across a broad range of value chains, with specific expertise on roots and tubers. He is proficient in market analysis, business strategy development, business sustainability, and project management.

Temitope has led several studies on agricultural policies and market entry strategies and implemented consulting projects in a range of priority areas including innovations in seed systems, mechanization, on-farm productivity enhancement and improved market access for agribusiness stakeholders.

Temitope holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Agronomy from the University of Ibadan and received his undergraduate degree in Plant Science from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife. He is currently completing his MBA at the Lagos Business School, Nigeria.

Rahmat is the Co-Founder/Co-CEO (Operations) at Nourishing Africa where she leads the company’s membership engagement activities and internal business operations.

Rahmat has spent the past 3 years on consulting projects in the agriculture sector, providing project implementation and advisory services on key agricultural value chains in Nigeria including cocoa and cassava. Rahmat has provided business development services to a tech start-up in Northern Nigeria, helping to raise funding from a World Bank sponsored program; worked with smallholder farmers on a cocoa sustainability project across Southwest Nigeria; and provided backstopping support for a pioneer early generation seed enterprise in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Rahmat holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture with a specialization in Soil Science and Land Resource Management from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

As the Co-Founder and Co-CEO (Programs), Ify manages the creation and implementation of programs for Nourishing Africa. She also oversees the ICT, Partnerships and Governance for the organization.

Ify has international experience in gender, maternal and adolescent health and nutrition at The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Adolescent Health (WHO), Geneva; Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, London; and Girl Effect, Abuja. She previously served as the Research Officer at African Philanthropy Forum and the Gender Analyst for the Nigerian Dairy Development Project (NDDP) at Sahel. Ify has conducted field research and in-depth report analysis and writing; with a range of published and internal reports including PMNCH Partners’ Forum Report, NDDP Baseline Study, Toolkit for African Philanthropists Vol. 2 and co-authored a chapter titled “The Influence of Religion on the Empowerment and Economic Mobility of Smallholder Women Dairy Farmers in Nigeria” in Muslim Women in the Economy: Development: Faith & Globalization, published by Routledge.

Ify holds a Bachelor in Social Science in International Relations, Sociology and Gender and Transformation (first class) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Masters in International Development with honors from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom