NDIDI NWUNELI: THE CORPORATE AMAZON WITH BEAUTY AND BRAIN

Ndidi Uwuneli

Talk about one Nigerian, whose profile has been giving the corporate sector a boost and the name of Ndidi Okonkwo-Nwuneli will readily come to mind. Nwuneli has seventeen years of experience in international development. She is the Founder of LEAP Africa and the co-founder of AACE Foods, an indigenous agro-processing. She is also a director of Sahel Capital & Advisory Partners, a leading advisory firm focused on the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors. Through her work with Sahel and AACE, she has shaped agriculture strategy and policy and supported a range of clients in Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia, including ECOWAS, Oxfam International, AGRA, USAID, UNECA, Technoserve, and the Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture for West and Central Africa.

Ndidi and Mezuo Uwuneli

Born in Enugu in 1975, to Prof. Paul Okonkwo who is the Head of the Pharmocology & Therapeutics Department, of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu and her mum, Prof. Rina an American who teaches General African Studies at the same university, Nwuneli is a graduated from Wharton at 20 and she got her MBA at 23 from the Harvard Business School. 

Nwuneli, who can be passed for a beauty queen, started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, working in their Chicago, New York and Johannesburg Offices, with a focus on fast moving consumer goods. She returned to Nigeria in 2000, to fulfill her passion of promoting entrepreneurship and leadership development in Africa. She served as the pioneer executive director of the FATE Foundation from 2000, and then established LEAP Africa, and NIA in 2002 and 2003 respectively. NIA empowers female university students to achieve their highest potential in life, while LEAP Africa provides leadership, ethics and management training and coaching for youth, business owners, social entrepreneurs and the public sector.

Nwuneli holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. Ndidi received her undergraduate degree with honors in Multinational and Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ndidi Uwuneli

Nwuneli has received numerous honors and awards. She was recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She received a National Honor, Member of the Federal Republic, from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2004, was recognized as the Young Manager of the Year 2005 by THISDAY Newspapers and received an Excellence Award from the Africa Business Club at Harvard Business School in 2007. Also, in August 2011, Nwunelu received an award from the Government of Anambra State.

Nwuneli also serves on numerous international boards including USAID's Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) and the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership.

She is Married to Mezuo Nwuneli, who is her partner on AACE Food Processing and Distribution Ltd.