Council of Management (Trustess)
Akin Olukiran BSc, MSc.
Akin Olukiran is an accountant with over 15 years’ senior management experience in the Third Sector in the UK. He is currently the CEO of Disability in Camden (DISC). He was at various times in the past the CEO of CultureLink Ltd; Head of Finance & IT of SHP (Housing Association); and Executive Director of Adzido (one of the largest and most successful black arts group in Europe) - all Third Sector organisations within the UK. Among other charity positions he presently holds is the Chair of the Board of DanceAfrica Ltd and a member of the Hampstead Heath Committee of the Corporation of London. He holds an MSc degree from the London School of Economics and a BSc Honours degree in Political Science from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Boko Inyundo, BA/MA
Boko is a Marketing & Business Development professional with Linklaters LLP, a global law firm
and one of the five members of the so-called “magic circle” of prominent UK law firms which advise some of the world’s leading corporations on transactions and operations.
Boko has over 10 years experience in the UK and African marketing and advertising industries. He has worked with Ogilvy & Mather (Kenya) and Saatchi & Saatchi (London), where he was an Account Director. During his career in the advertising sector Boko has provided consultancy services to various businesses including the launch of the largest ISP in sub-Saharan Africa – Africa Online -, South African Breweries and PepsiCo (East Africa) as well as clients such as Lloyds TSB, Procter & Gamble and UK public sector bodies such as Sport England and the Waste & Resource Action Programme. Immediately prior to Linklaters, Boko was the Marketing Manager aligned to Deloitte & Touche’s Technology; Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) industry group where he developed and implemented a variety of national client-facing programs designed to generate business and corporate relationship opportunities in the UK’s TMT sectors for this ‘Big 4’ global accountancy/management consultancy firm.
Boko holds a BA in German language & literature from the University of Birmingham and a Masters in Marketing Management from Westminster Business School, part of the University of Westminster.
Boko is half Kenyan/half English. He was born and brought up in Kenya where he also runs a charity focussing on water sanitation in one of the poorest areas of rural western Kenya – for more information visit www.kwdp.co.uk
Dr. Ben Jabuni BSc, MSc, C. Psycol, AFBPsS
Dr Jabuni currently works for the UK Stroke Association as a Director of Services. His professional background is in Psychology and Psychotherapy. He is a graduate of the University of London where he was awarded a doctorate with commendation in psychology following his first and second degrees at the same university. He also holds a post-graduate qualification in Business Administration from Henley Management College and is a member of the Chartered Management Institute.
Dr Jabuni has previously worked in the UK National Health Service both as a clinical therapist, specialising in the treatment of mental health problems and as a General Manager. He has a track record of general management in Local Authority Social Services and lecturing at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queens Square.
Dr Jabuni hails from northern Ghana and has a deep interest in African history and the history of science and psychology in Africa.
Isa Abba Adamu
Isa Aba Adamu is the first African to become the Regional Executive Editor for the Africa and Middle East Region at the BBC World Service. He is editorially responsible for BBC World Service broadcasts – on radio and online - to Africa and the Middle East in English, Arabic, Hausa, Somali, Swahili, French, Portuguese and Kinya-Rwanda. Isa first joined the BBC in 1987 with the BBC Hausa service where he produced and presented various radio programmes. He also helped to coach and mentor the BBC Hausa team.
Before joining the BBC Isa worked as a producer and presenter with the Gongola Broadcasting Corporation and as a TV news editor and reporter with the Kano Broadcasting Corporation, both in Nigeria. In August 2007 Isa was awarded the Distinguished Medal of Honour by the Congress of Mass Communication Students' Association (MACOSA) at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria.
Kaye Whiteman BA
Kaye Whiteman is a writer and journalist, specialising in west African affairs, but with wider interests in Europe-Africa relations, international organisations such as the Commonwealth and La Francophonie, as well as a general interest in African societies and culture. A graduate in history from the university of Oxford, from 1963-73 he was Deputy Editor of West Africa magazine, then moved to be a senior information officer in the European Commission in Brussels dealing with development issues, especially in Africa, for ten years. In 1982 he was asked to return to West Africa, (by then Nigerian- owned) first as Editor, then as Editor-in-Chief and General Manager.
In 1999-2000 he was Director of Information at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and in 2001-2 he worked in Lagos first as Editor of a newsletter called Business Confidential then as Editorial Adviser to Nigeria's new financial daily newspaper Business Day (Nigeria), a function he has continued to occupy since 2003 from London, where he continues as a freelance writer. Kaye is currently working on a book on Lagos as a "city of the imagination".
Mark Thomas BA, FCCA
Mark is an experienced senior management accountant and IT project manager, currently specialising in the integration of social care client management software with corporate financial systems. Born in 1964, Mark read Economics and History at the University of Leeds, from where he graduated in 1985. Mark went on to study for the professional examinations of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, passing his finals in 1989. He is now a Fellow of the Association (FCCA).
Throughout his career, Mark has combined a solid financial management background with experience in the implementation, development and administration of a number of IT solutions. He has worked in a number of sectors, including energy and local government, but the longest period of his work history to date was spent at BUPA. Mark left BUPA in 1992 to pursue a career as a self-employed IT project manager, and has worked for a number of local authorities, on both a full-time contract and part-time consultancy basis. He has also carried out consultancy work in relation to reporting on the progress of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Infrastructure Short-Term Action Plan (STAP).
Nnaemeka Nwagbo, Diplomat
Nnaemeka Nwagbo is a career diplomat who has served in various countries in Europe over the past 20 years. He began his career as a teacher after studying political science in the university but branched into diplomacy in pursuit of higher challenges.
He participated actively in the negotiations at the United Nations Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons in July 2001 and has since 2005 been a Minister at the Nigeria High Commission in London. He remains actively involved in the activities of the Africa Centre as well on issues concerning Africans in the Diaspora.
Oliver Andrews MBA
Oliver Andrews is the Chief Executive Officer of TCI Infrastructure Limited (TCII). TCII is an Infrastructure developer and project finance company, which specialises in the provision, development and financial engineering of infrastructure projects in Emerging Markets with a focus in Africa.
An entrepreneurial transport economist with a background in engineering, business development and corporate finance, Oliver has over 30 years experience in the transport sector and 20 years as an infrastructure project developer and strategic adviser. Oliver holds an MBA from Cardiff Business, University of Wales and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Chartered Institute of Transport.
As the Chair of the Africa Centre since September 2004, Oliver has been instrumental in leading the Centre's redevelopment, which has had stakeholder consultation and the development of strategic partnerships at the core of its strategy.
Dr. Patrick Wilmot BA, PhD
Patrick Wilmot was born in Jamaica where he attended St Georges College. He studied at Yale and acquired his PhD from Vanderbilt. He taught for 18 years at Ahmadu Bello University until he was kidnapped and expelled by the dictator General Babangida.
Patrick Wilmot has written several books, including Sociology: a New Introduction and Seeing Double, a novel. In 2006 he was appointed visiting Professor at 3 Nigerian Universities.
Peter da Costa BA, MSc
Peter da Costa, a national of The Gambia resident in the UK, is a communication for development specialist who has worked extensively in Africa over the last 16 years. He initially trained as a journalist and reported extensively from West Africa during the early 1990s for print, broadcast and multimedia outlets. During this period he diversified into communication for development and undertook assignments for a number of development organizations.
In 1994 he was appointed Regional Director for Africa of Inter Press Service, a leading global media and development communication agency, and moved to Zimbabwe. In 1997 he became Senior Communication Adviser to the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Ethiopia, where he led efforts to build and strengthen communication for development partnerships and capacity in Africa. In 2003 he left the UN to pursue doctoral studies and is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. He remains actively involved in communication for development initiatives in and on Africa.
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem BA, PhD
A political activist and social thinker, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the deputy director of the UN Millennium Campaign for Africa and co-director of Justice Africa, a London-based research institute and advocacy organisation. Additionally, he has been general secretary of the Kampala-based Global Pan Africanist Movement since 1994.
Abdul-Raheem is also a general editor of African Arguments, a collaborative publishing initiative between Justice Africa, the Royal African Society, the International African Institute and Zed Books. He is the editor of Pan Africanism: Politics, Economy and Social Change in the Twenty-First Century (Pluto Press, 1996) and the widely-read author of a weekly online column, Tajudeen’s Thursday Postcard. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where he gained his DPhil in political science.
Wayne G. Callender BSc, MBA MRICS, Dip IR (UWI)
Wayne is a Management Consultant and Construction Project Manager; he has training in Surveying, International Relations and Business Administration. He has designed, organised and delivered training programmes and modules for construction technicians, graduate engineers, construction professionals, contractors and other practitioners in the Built Environment at technical colleges, and in public and private sector companies and development agencies in the UK and the Caribbean.
Wayne was a member of the team, which was responsible for the implementation of the Egan Report - "Rethinking Construction" dedicated to improving the performance and efficiency of the UK's Construction Industry. Wayne specialises in delivering Best Practice in Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Lean Project Delivery System and Project Management.
Back to About Us
