JAN AMBASSADORS

Mr. Simdul Shagaya, as the CEO of online shopping website, Konga.com won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award in the CNBC/All Africa Business Leaders Award in West Africa.
Sim has over 11 years’ experience in New Media and Investment Banking. He has worked with leaders such as Rand Merchant Bank, MicroStrategy, Lucent Technologies and Real Networks. He was an intern at JAN before attending Harvard Business School and credits JAN for empowering him to pursue his entrepreneurial passions. Since then, Sim has founded many businesses including DealDey, eMotion, and Konga.com.
He is a great example of an excellent entrepreneur which is the aspiration of most JAN students.

Simi Nwogugu is the founder & CEO of HOD Consulting, a leadership and organizational development firm.
Simi started her career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and has over seventeen years of finance and strategy consulting experience with various organizations including Goldman Sachs, MTV Networks, ING Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers and McKinsey & Co. She was the Founding Executive Director for Junior Achievement Nigeria for the first three years and has served on the board of directors since then. She has helped start various other non-profit organizations and foundations in Nigeria, and was most recently the Founding Administrator for the African Capital Alliance (ACA) Foundation, which supports ethical leadership and development of an enabling environment for entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Simi’s path toward developing her consulting practice is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study titled, An Entrepreneur’s Journey: Simi Nwogugu. The case is taught to second-year Harvard Business School students interested in becoming entrepreneurs who balance personal success with social responsibility.

Tayo Oviosu is the Founder and CEO of Pagatech, Nigeria’s first and largest indigenous online payment system. Most recently, he was the Vice President of Travant Capital Partners where he was responsible for executing the firm’s investment strategy in West Africa. Prior to joining Travant, Tayo served as a Manager, Corporate Development, at Cisco Systems in San Jose California.
He participates in the Entrepreneurs Ecosystem, which provides an enabling environment for fledgling entrepreneurs to help them improve the chances of survival and maximize the potential of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.

Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo is the Director of Corona Secondary School. She has over 28 years working experience in the finance and education sectors which includes working with Tetra Pak West Africa, where she was the Finance Manager to her role as the Executive Director of Corona Schools Trust Council.
She won two awards for academic excellence: a Merit Award of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and University Scholar of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Folasade is a committed educationist who believes that every child deserves to be taught by a teacher every day. She serves on the board of a number of youth and education-oriented volunteer organizations.
Mrs. Adefisayo has inspired change in education of students; she has supported JAN

Toyosi Akerele is a respected inspirational and mindful young leader who is celebrated for National Leadership in the service of a larger cause.
A worthy alumna of the United States Government’s prestigious International Visitor Leadership Programme for Emerging Leaders, she was in June of 2011 described by Mrs. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States of America, as one of her personal inspirations in a televised address to America as a prelude to her arrival in Africa for the Young African Women Leaders Forum.
Toyosi is the Founder/CEO of RISE NETWORKS which is a leading social enterprise in Nigeria that designs effective programs to deepen the links and learning opportunities for young people in knowledge acquisition, enterprise and nation building.
Toyosi has participated in several JAN programs as a volunteer
Toyosi is the recipient of numerous awards including recent recognition by Crans Montana Forum in Europe as a 2012 New Leader of Tomorrow.

Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director and Founder of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and was the pioneer Program Manager of Lagos Digital Village, a multi stakeholder telecentre project that provides training research and mentorship opportunities for underserved children in Nigeria. He served on the board of Africa Mentor Foundation; he is also an author and a member of the United Nations committees of Leaders on youth and ICT and an Ashoka Fellow.
Gbenga participated in JAN’s Venture in Management Program (ViMP), which helped him build the foundation for his career and management skills. As a social entrepreneur, Gbenga has mentored and trained youth in the disadvantaged slum Ajegunle through Paradigm Initiative’s ICT programs.
He has won 26 awards and honours both locally and internationally, including a 2012 listing by CNN as one of the Top 10 Leading African Tech Voices, and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40.

Tunji Eleso is director of Strategy and Business Advisory at Co-Creation (Cc-HUB) Nigeria. Eleso functions as the Lead, Pre-Incubation and Research channel at the social innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for academic prosperity.
Tunji’s career spans stints at firms such as Ernst & Young and Capital Partners Limited, where he served in the business advisory and strategy development roles.
He participated in JAN’s Venture in Management Program about 10 years ago; this helped to shape his interest in becoming an entrepreneur. He has also impacted the lives of elementary school students as a volunteer, where he taught these young leaders JAN programs for over 4 years.

Oyindamola “Honey” Ogundeyi is the queen of Fashpa and the face of the ever rising African fashion industry. Oyindamola is one of the visionary Africans who have gallantly secured a brilliant position for African women to be seen, heard and celebrated in business, especially in the fashion industry. For Oyindamola, bootstrapping in the early days of business is key; as it has the ability to discipline young entrepreneurs and give them a firm grip and understanding of business. She encourages young Africans to be willing to start something, however small.
Having traversed different areas of business and the corporate world, from Banking and Brand Management to Internet and Telecoms Oyindamola acknowledges that starting a business, especially in Nigeria was no small task, but she finishes what she starts.

An investment professional with over 20 years’ experience spanning investment banking, private equity investing, technology and new business development in the USA, Europe and Africa.
She is a co-founder and managing director of Alitheia Capital, a Nigeria based investment management and advisory firm focused on channeling private equity investments into businesses to enhance access to finance, energy and housing for small and growing businesses, and low-income households. Alitheia has led investments in financial institutions that enable the (i) provision of financial services to the un(der)banked through traditional and branchless banking models; (ii)provision of wholesale financing to financial institutions supporting clean energy financing; and (iii) construction of affordable homes and school infrastructure.
‘Tokunboh’s previous roles include Country Partner for Nigeria at Aureos Capital; Fund Manager of a specialized technology venture capital fund (Sussex Place Venture); M&A banker at Salomon Smith Barney and Managing Director of Avante Capital Ltd where she advised on a number of acquisitions in the oil and gas sector.
‘Tokunboh is on the board of a number of companies. She is a Yale World Fellow, an alumnus of London Business School and a CFA Charterholder.

Otto Orondaam is a young man who by the age of 16, had a passion to improve the state of Nigeria. This inspired him to volunteer and work with several non-profit organizations and International development Agencies in Nigeria and within Africa, where he assisted in building structures for implementing developmental projects.
Otto Orondaam founded Slum2School Africa in 2012 during his national youth service as an intervention to advocate for and improve access/quality of education for disadvantaged children in slums and remote communities.
Since inception, Otto has worked with over 2000 young volunteers from over 15 countries to provide scholarships for over 600 children from slums like Makoko, Sogunro, Okuabo, Emina and Aiyetoro communities in Lagos state and several thousands have benefited from health and psycho-social support programs in these communities.
Otto Orondaam’s contributions to the social sector have fetched several recognitions including recognition by the Presidency as one of the top 100 Nigerian Youths.

Oyinda Omoluabi is the founder and CEO of Bead Emporium, a leading multi-channel jewelry retailer in Nigeria.
Oyinda is one of JAN’s success stories. While at Queen’s College, Oyinda participated in several JAN programs and, because of her creative IT skills and outstanding essay, was selected to represent Nigeria at a Junior Achievement international global trade institute in the United States. Oyinda was so successful there, that she came back with many prizes, including a full four-year scholarship to University of Richmond! While at Richmond, she spent a year at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a summer at UBS Investment Bank, which landed her a full-time job there upon graduation.
Since then, Oyinda has worked at several firms in the US and UK, but she is now fulfilling her ultimate dream, which is to be an entrepreneur in Nigeria. In addition to the success of Bead Emporium, Oyinda is currently working on two start-ups and preparing for her first baby!