Chinwe Odigboegwu – Legal Director, Guiness Nigeria Plc

Chinwe Odigboegwu FCIArb is a lawyer, award winning general counsel, author, mediator, arbitrator, mediation advocate, trainer, notary public and chartered secretary. She is currently the Legal Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc, where she is leading a dynamic team of business partners, providing commercially sound solutions to the business through four service units namely legal advisory, company secretarial, security and brand protection.

As a career woman, she says she is most happy when she comes up with solutions, especially when the solutions are not just to resolve legal issues.

The elephant in the room, the imposter syndrome has held a lot of women down and affected their lives even as top executives. Chinwe’s view is that imposter syndrome can be subdued. For her, there is the need to rise out of insecurities as women. She believes that women must own and drive their initiatives for change, then step up to demand and proudly receive the accolades due to them. Instead of waiting for change, she admonishes women to make the change they are waiting for happen.

Chinwe has learnt not to be intimidated by men even in a field dominated by them. She chooses to remain courteous and non-contentious as she works with her male counterparts.

She is a lover of teaching, music, watching movies and swimming. She appreciates gaining new knowledge and multiple competencies so that she doesn’t get bored doing the same things for too long.

A woman of impact, she is inspired by impacting lives and organisations positively. She does this because she wants people and organisations to be better versions of themselves just by coming in contact with her.

As someone who is committed to mentorship, she is particularly concerned about women mentorship, hence the reason most of her mentees are women. She encourages them to be high achievers and be of value to themselves, their organisation and community as a whole. Because of her influence on her mentees, they are successful in their professions and businesses and are also inspiring others to do same.

Chinwe is affiliated with professional bodies including the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK (CIArb), the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, UK (CEDR), and the Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates, UK (SCMA).

She is a member of the Panel of Neutrals and Training Faculty of the Lagos Multi-Door Courthouse (LMDC), Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA), and the Negotiation and Conflict Management Group (NCMG).