LEAP Africa, one of Africa’s leading youth-focused leadership development non-profit organisations has announced the appointment of a new board to diversify its operations with the announcement Clare Omatseye and Larry Ettah as board chair and co-chair respectively.
Omatseye and Ettah are astute business leaders of great repute who have led and managed many successful projects and organisations with a track record of success, innovation, and scaling. Omatseye succeeds Udeme Ufot who retired from the board after serving two tenures.
Omatseye, healthcare entrepreneur with a pharmaceutical and medical technology career, spanning over three decades, is the managing director/founder of JNC International Ltd. (JNCI), a leading Turnkey Medical Equipment Solutions Company; an organisation she founded in 2003.
She is an independent non-executive director of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) and Beta Glass Plc; and the Chairman of Vaccipharm Ltd. (a company she also founded in 1999). She is currently the President of the West African Private Healthcare Federation (WAPHF) and Vice President of the African Healthcare Federation (AHF).
Larry Ettah on the other hand is the executive chairman of Barracuda Capital Partners Limited, an organisation he founded in 2018 after his retirement as the group managing director (GMD)/chief executive officer (CEO) of UAC of Nigeria Plc (UACN).
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Before his retirement, Ettah chaired the board of UAC Property Development Company Plc (UPDC), Chemical & Allied Products Plc (CAP), Portland Paints and Products Nigeria Plc, among others.
According to a statement by LEAP Africa, Omatseye and Ettah who currently serves on the board of Coronation Merchant Bank Ltd, will be supported by a refreshed board of industry experts including Joe Abah (Country Director at DAI Global, LLC), Tola Adeyemi (Managing Partner at KPMG), Uche Pedro (Founder of BellaNaija) and Sadiq Usman (Head, Corporate Business Development at Flour Mills Nig. Plc.).
At the senior management level, LEAP Africa also announced Kehinde Ayeni as the acting executive director. Ayeni has spent the last 13-year with LEAP Africa in various capacities, including serving as the chief operating officer in the last three years.
The announcement indicated that Ayeni’s passion, loyalty, drive, and excellence have contributed greatly to the growth of LEAP Africa. It stated that she is a skilled facilitator and has led impact-driven sessions in LEAP Africa’s core leadership programmes within and outside Nigeria.
In 2020, Ayeni was recognized among 50 African Women Making a Difference in Development by Donors for Africa and a 2021 Praxis Non-profit Accelerator Fellow. Ayeni succeeds Femi Taiwo.
“LEAP Africa’s 20th year has been a reflective time, looking back at the impact of the last two decades in tandem with the gaps LEAP Africa was formed to fill. The next two decades will be geared at catalysing change across Africa and deepening its focus through multi-level partnerships with the generous support of partners, donors, institutions, and individuals,” the statement reads
