Nigeria
Hauwa Yabani, Chief Executive Officer of Abuja Technology Village FZ Co., has been appointed High Commissioner for Nigeria. High Commissioner Yabani represents Nigeria in the Global Innovation and Technology Leaders Committee of the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum.
Hauwa.Yabani@wbaforum.org
Hauwa Yabani is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Abuja Technology Village FZ Co., the Master Developer of a Science and Technology Park (STP) and Special Economic Zone development in Nigeria’s capital city. The STP programs portfolio comprises masterplan management, large-scale infrastructure and real estate development, innovation management and human capital mobilization and development. Hauwa has provided technical advisory and support services to senior government officials in the areas of policy formulation, program design, project implementation management and entrepreneurship development, all under the auspices of development agencies including the UN Development Programme. Hauwa is a director and member of several boards, including the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, where she served as the immediate past Treasurer. Previous board engagements include the Abuja Enterprise Agency. Hauwa a Nigeria Leadership Initiative-Yale Fellow, an honour conferred after a Yale-administered seminar on values-based leadership. She is a trustee of initiatives on outsourcing development, free zones management, an angel network and a women-focused investment platform. Hauwa founded a non- governmental initiative for revival and sustainable development that currently focuses on youth empowerment. She is an alumnus of the University of Reading, University of Warwick and the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom with degrees in Accounting
Nigeria
Yemi Keri, Co-Founder of Rising Tide Africa, has been appointed as Senator at the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum. Senator Keri will represent Nigeria in the Global Woman Leaders Committee of the Grand Assembly.
Yemi.Keri@wbaforum.org
Yemi Keri is one of the foremost Women in Technology in Nigeria. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Heckerbella Limited, a Technology Business Transformation company, and also a Partner at Holmen Consulting, an Information Technology Consulting firm. Yemi Keri has over 22 years’ experience in Information and Communications Technology sector at top management levels in both the public and private sectors. She was the Director and Regional Manager, West Africa for SAP Africa and was the pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Edo State Directorate of Information Communications & Technology Agency. Yemi Keri is the co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, a women’s movement initiated with a vision to increase women’s participation in angel investing as an asset class and promote education, cross-border investing and investor-mentoring across Africa.
She is also a Director of the Lagos Angel Network and serves as a mentor to various digitally and technology-enabled start-ups. She is also an Expert in Residence (EIR) at the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan- Atlantic University, Lagos. A multidisciplinary graduate of Accounting (University of Maiduguri), and Masters in Information Technology Project Management from the American InterContinental University, Illinois, Strategic Decision Making for Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, and an alumnus of the Lagos Business School/IESE Business School, Barcelona and China European International Business School. Yemi holds membership of several professional bodies including IOD, ICAN, CIBN, CITN and the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS). She also holds various certifications in Risk and Project management and received the Centenary Award for the Most Outstanding Public-Sector CIO in Nigeria in 2014.