Eme Essien Lore is an experienced development finance professional with a demonstrated history of effective team leadership resulting in measurable outcomes. She is also an advocate for a ‘People-Planet-Profits Agenda’ in Africa, and a thought leader on the role of organisational health in firm performance.
With over 25 years of experience in development finance, specifically in Africa, she now focuses on how to enhance organisational health and corporate governance as a key driver for stronger development finance outcomes.
Eme spent over 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. She served as Country Manager for IFC’s Nigeria office from 2014 through 2021. As Country Manager, she had oversight of IFC’s investment and advisory activities in Nigeria, the largest single country exposure in sub-Saharan Africa and fifth largest globally at over $2bn in sectors including energy, manufacturing, healthcare and financial institutions.
Lore guided efforts for government engagement, business development, integrity, due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management. As a member of the IFC Africa Department management team, she played an important role in the development and execution of the regional strategy.
She has significant experience working in the oil and gas sectors with global clients as well as in East Africa, where she developed and processed business leads for a range of sectors and served on the advisory and executive boards of IFC investee private equity funds and microfinance institutions in the East Africa region.
During her time at IFC, she also took on oversight role of an Africa-wide portfolio of SME investment and capacity building projects.
As a senior advisor, she works with fund managers and other entities to develop and execute their Africa strategies, including ESG Africa where she is a Senior Advisor for Organisational Health.
Eme spent several years at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, where she supported the development and execution of several initiatives, including youth employment and impact investing. Her time at Rockefeller Foundation seeded her interest in the role of corporate philanthropy in development.
Essien Lore is a skilled facilitator. While serving as a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Advocate at IFC and as a member of the IFC D&I Council, she facilitated many senior level discussions on unconscious bias, a key learning tool for D&I awareness raising. She is a certified Working Genius facilitator, helping teams, individuals and companies to improve productivity by identifying and utilizing the talents and passions of all team members.
Eme is a graduate of Columbia College at Columbia University, she also earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
