Aku also serves on the board of Nord Oil APS & Energy Services, an affiliate of Librod Energy Services Group. At Fidelity Bank she turned around the performance of her Directorate and made it the top contributor to the bank's profitability over a seven year run. Across her career she has chaired finance, budget, audit and risk committees, and she supports philanthropic and gender promoting causes as a Director at Women Aid Collective.

She holds a Harvard AMP certification, an Executive Masters from IMD Business School and a dual MBA from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. She is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a member of the Chartered Institute of Directors.

Sam first served as Executive Director of PIND from 2013 to 2016, transforming it from a corporate social responsibility initiative into an internationally recognized development institution, and returned in July 2025. He is a trained mediator and an advocate of market systems approaches and evidence based policymaking, with experience alongside USAID, DFID, GIZ and UNDP.

He holds an MBA from the University of Benin and a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the University of Calabar, and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, London Business School, Columbia Business School and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

Ijeoma began her career at Citibank Nigeria and then Trust Bank Limited, now Sterling Bank Plc, where she handled legal and compliance matters and left as Acting Company Secretary in 2004. In 2005 she consulted for the Central Bank of Nigeria on the DFID assisted Recapitalization and Consolidation Reform of the Nigerian banking sector.

She holds a law degree and a Master's in Corporate and Commercial Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the Association of International Energy Negotiators and Boardroom Africa.

Benjamin began his career as a Management Consultant with AW Consultants Limited, now Deloitte & Touche, in 1986, then worked in corporate finance at First City Merchant Bank. He joined Diamond Bank Plc in 1991 as part of its pioneering staff and rose to General Manager, later joining Access Bank Plc. He returned to Nigeria in 2013 and left banking in 2016 to start his own company.

He holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan and an M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Lagos, and is an alumnus of Lagos Business School, the Wharton School and Harvard Business School.

She has led the institution building from the ground up, shaping its governance architecture, operating models, policies framework, and long term growth plans. To drive this initiative, she has designed the Financing for Systemic Change (FSC) model, together with the operational framework that puts it into practice. Grounded in systemic investing thinking, FSC directs capital to the constraints that hold back whole markets, not just individual businesses, bringing market systems thinking into investment practice.

Edwina is a strong believer in the power of growth financing to drive development and positive change. Her current work sits at the convergence of development finance, impact investing, social entrepreneurship and systems thinking. She is particularly passionate about developing sustainable models of entrepreneurship capable of driving economic development at scale and delivering sustainable impact for local communities.

She brings strong corporate governance experience to bear, drawn from serving on several boards. She currently discharges board committee level responsibilities across microfinance, commercial banking, construction and oil and gas support services companies. She holds membership of risk management, audit, compliance, finance and strategy committees and chairs the finance and strategy committees at separate boards. This depth of executive and board level experience gives her a practical, well rounded view of how institutions are managed, held to account and properly governed.

She began her banking and investment management career at Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s top 5 banks, working with enterprise clients to facilitate access to growth financing. This was followed by a 7 year stint at Fidelity Bank Plc where she built and led a new corporate banking team for the South Directorate, driving her team to deliver a minimum of 15% of the bank's global PBT, year on year. Her team’s contribution formed an integral part of the Bank’s achievement of its 5 in 1 strategic objectives, a 5 year business growth and expansion plan which aggressively advanced the bank’s Tier 1 status ambitions. She supports enterprises to build their capacities to access appropriately priced and structured repayable finance, working with SMEs and social enterprises in the UK and Nigeria to move from grants dependency to sustainable financing models.

Edwina is a law graduate and a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She holds a Master's degree in International Development Management from the University of Westminster and is a certified PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Directors, the Bank Directors Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian Bar Association.

Edwina is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Finance, focusing on Financing for Systemic Change as a pathway to entrepreneurial ecosystem transformation and community wealth creation in emerging markets.

At NDPI, she provides leadership across finance and operations, internal controls, compliance, procurement, contracts, risk management, organizational systems, and process improvement, with a strong focus on financial stewardship, accountability, efficiency, and institutional sustainability.

Her experience includes strengthening policies and procedures, improving financial and operational controls, supporting audits and regulatory compliance, managing organizational resources, driving cost efficiencies, and developing systems that improve operational performance and decision making. She also brings experience in leveraging data, digital systems, artificial intelligence, and technology to strengthen organizational processes and improve efficiency.

Ochuko holds an MSc in Cybersecurity from Bay Atlantic University, an MSc in Human Resource Management from Middlesex University, and a degree in Quantity Surveying, complemented by professional training in knowledge management. She brings a multidisciplinary approach to leadership, combining financial and operational expertise with strong organizational, analytical, and technology capabilities to build effective, accountable, and sustainable organizations.

Sylvester is skilled at designing and implementing interventions with a focus on sustainable growth and increasing incomes for smallholder farmers through partnership with private sector companies, service providers, government institutions, research organisations, and community actors. His experience spans agricultural value chains, access to inputs, technical services, agricultural technologies, and industrial markets.

He is passionate about innovative and practical approaches that can create lasting economic opportunities while addressing environmental and social challenges.

Sylvester holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has additional training in Market Systems Development, Development Planning and Project Management.