CEO
Ayodeji Razaq
Ayodeji Razaq is a Marketing Communications Specialist with close to 10 years of experience in creating customized experiential solutions for brands across the FMCG, Technology, Manufacturing & Financial Services industries.
He operates as the CEO of RED Group, a communication firm that uses storytelling to solve problems, change narratives and build movements for companies, investors, changemakers, and governments. The subsidiaries within the group include Red Media Africa, StateCraft Inc., Red Production, and The Future Awards Africa. The RED Group has engaged with businesses such as Facebook, Uber, Unilever, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, HP, etc.; and has even driven political campaigns for a number of presidents as well as individuals.
Ayodeji is skilled in bringing complex ideas to life, and he has demonstrated this capacity through his work with several brands.
MANAGEMENT
Isime Esene
Isime Esene is a media professional and communication consultant. His areas of proficiency include public relations & communication strategy, content management, media relations, and more.
He has experience in team management garnered from years working as managing editor of Y!/YNaija.com and handling other leadership roles within and outside the RED | For Africa organization.
Isime began his career as a systems analyst at the Ogun State Property & Investment Corporation (OPIC) in 2007, followed by a position as a business development executive for Beryl Consulting Limited from 2008 to 2011.
He joined Y!/YNaija.com, the internet newspaper for young Nigerians in 2012 raising its profile to be among the top 40 websites in the country a year after. He became the managing editor of the Y! media franchise in the same year, overseeing a bouquet of public-facing online brands including Y! Magazine, Y! TV and Teen Y!.
Isime has through the years interfaced and delivered strategy for high impact brands including Microsoft, Google, Nigerian Breweries, Access Bank, Guinness, Etisalat, Airtel, Samsung, HP, BlackBerry and a host of others.
He is a member of the RED | For Africa Management Board, member of the expanded Advisory Council of TFAAS, policy think-tank chairman of the BoystoMEN Foundation, and Advisory Council member of NigeriaPresslog.
He sets the agenda and speaks on matters relating to the media and its impact on local and international stages including the Social Media Week Lagos and London Business School Africa Summit.
Isime Esene, who believes in the power of the media to promote development and inspire change, is an alumnus of the Lagos State University and Pan-Atlantic University.
BOARD
Nkiru Olumide-Ojo
Nkiru Olumide-Ojo holds two decades of experience in Strategic Marketing and Corporate Communications and looking after the reputation of multinational and national brands in Africa. Her work experience spans across various sectors including Financial Services, Aviation, Telecommunication and the Oil and Gas sectors. An Expert Reputation and Crisis Communication Manager, she currently works as the Africa Regional Executive Head, Marketing and Corporate Communication of Standard Bank Group. Nkiru holds board level experience having sat on the boards of Stanbic IBTC Trustees Limited and CMC Connect Burtson Masteller.
A frequent Conference Speaker, The 2020 Forbes Africa Women’s Summit, London Advertising Week, Africa Public Relations Conference, Google Nigeria and Standard Bank’s Blue Heels women’s programme are some of the conferences where she has spoken at. Over the past couple of years, Nkiru has had several recognitions such as Brand Communicators Top women in marketing and communication, leading Woman in Marketing and Communication, Marketing Personality of the year NIPRO’s top 40 under 40, leading Marketing Personality amongst others. She holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Marketing Management from the Kingston University Surrey, London, a post-graduate diploma in management/first degree in biological sciences, and many professional trainings.
A John Maxwell certified Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Nkiru is the published author of the Pressure Cooker- Lessons from a woman at work, a book that talks about women in the professional environment. She is the founder of LightHouse Network, a social development initiative that is dedicated to empowering young women by providing them a formal mentoring platform.
Kola Adesina
Kola is a consummate entrepreneur with experience across the academia, finance, energy, trade and diplomacy. He is the Group Managing Director at Sahara Group, a leading international energy (power, oil and gas) and infrastructure conglomerate with operations in over 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe.
Kola combines his years of management and business diplomacy experience into creating and executing innovative strategies for governments across sub Saharan Africa in the energy sector. Kola is a much sought after resource person on energy related issues, especially the power sector in Africa and is also a frontline speaker at conferences across the globe.
He is passionate about empowering young people and takes great pride in mentoring youths to seek creative ways of galvanizing their energies for sustained excellence and productivity. Kola Adesina is a pan-Africanist, a seasoned entrepreneur and avowed promoter of the Pan African Dream of regional integration and trade.
He holds a B.SC (Insurance), M.SC. (Business), Masters in International Law and Diplomacy and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Insurance.
Ije Nwokorie
Ije Nwokorie is a Senior Director at Apple. He was previously the CEO of global branding firm, Wolff Olins, one of the world’s most influential brand businesses, responsible for brands such as Orange, First Direct, Tate, RED, AoL, London2012, and EE.
Ije has been recognized by GQ as one of the UK’s 100 most connected men, by Creative Review as one of the UK’s 50 most creative leaders and by Powerlist as one of the UKs 100 most influential people of African and African-Caribbean heritage.
Ije is a board member of Charity Water, RED | For Africa and Malaria No More UK. He has advised the boards of some of the world’s leading companies – Daimler, Skype, Expedia, EE, and Orange, among others – on strategy, innovation and growth.
Born in America, Ije spent his early years in Nigeria, an experience he credits with underpinning his creative outlook, as it is a world where commerce, culture, and creativity are necessarily intertwined in everyday life. Since graduating with an M.Arch from Columbia University in 1995, he has worked at the intersection of technology, creativity and leadership, subjects about which he writes and tells stories regularly.
Ije acts as an adviser for numerous startups, including SortedFoods, through his venturing vehicle, Co-Incidence.
He is a passionate speaker on the subject of creative leadership and increasingly an influential voice in the fledgling creative industries of Africa.
Ken Ikpe
Dr. Ken Onyeali Ikpe is the Group Chief Executive Officer of INSIGHT REDEFINI GROUP (2016), Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest Marketing Communication & Advertising Group. He holds a Ph.D in Development Economics from the Academy of Sciences, School of African Studies Moscow Russia, an alumni of Advanced Management Programme (AMP), Lagos Business School, and also trained at the IESE Business School, Barcelona – Spain. He is a fellow of Nigeria Institute of Marketing and the President of Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN).
Dr. Ikpe is highly sought after by result driven leaders as he is renowned for visionary business transformation leadership, with over two decades of building successful brands and transforming businesses. Dr. Ken leads by deepening what works, he embraces well-researched truth & new knowledge, he builds capacity for loyalty amongst his constituents and is greatly committed to the increasing success of his team.
He is a life management coach, business mentor, teacher and a lover of growth and development. He lectures part time at the School of Media and Communication (SMC) Pan Atlantic University.
Ken Onyeali Ikpe is known and respected as a visionary leader, with strong business acumen and loved for his pragmatic view to politics and governance.
Tolu Ogunkoya
Tolu Ogunkoya is the Regional Managing Director, West & Central Africa and Managing Director, mediaReach OMD Nigeria. He is a member of Ashridge UK Alumni Association. A Fellow of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON & Council Member, APCON), President of Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) and Fellow, IOD Nigeria.
Tolu before today was the President of MIPAN (Media Independents Practitioners Association of Nigeria), the body that has all leading media agencies operating in Nigeria registered in its fold. Tolu was elevated to the highest grade of professionalism in advertising in this country, inducted as a Fellow Registered Practitioner in Advertising (frpa) by APCON in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advertising industry – as a player, education resource person, etc. He also currently serves on the APCON Council.
He has also served as a resource person on many of APCON & MIPAN’s training programs. He is a member of the Institute of Directors Nigeria.
Bright Simons
Bright Simons is a technology innovator, development activist and social entrepreneur. He is the President of mPedigree, a social enterprise working on three continents with governments, Fortune 500 companies and activists to safeguard human health and food security using technology.
A career inventor and innovator, he is also a Board-level Advisor, with appointments to the Microsoft Africa Advisory Council, the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Africa, the Center for Global Development’s Study Group on Technology, the World Economic Forum’s Africa Strategy Group, Care International, the inaugural Ashoka Globalizer initiative, the Africa Population Health Research Center, and IC Publications, owner of the New African magazine. He is a WEF YGL, TED Fellow, Aspen Braddock Fellow, and the 2016 CNBC African Innovative Business Leader of the Year. In 2016, Fortune magazine named him on their 50 World Greatest Leaders list.
Biola Alabi
Biola Alabi is an award winning filmmaker, entrepreneur, investor, public speaker, and television anchor. The media icon heads Biola Alabi Media, a media company dedicated to telling authentic African stories to the world. She is also the founder of “Grooming for Greatness” a leadership development and mentorship program for a new generation for African leaders and a Non- Executive Director of Unilever Nigeria. Named one of the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa by Forbes Magazine, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and CNBC Africa’s AABLA West African Business Woman of the Year. For over five highly successful years, Biola Alabi held the high-profile position of Managing Director for M-Net Africa, part of the globally renowned Naspers Group. Prior to this, she was based in the United States where she was part of the executive team at the influential children’s television brand Sesame Street.