Tony O. Elumelu is an African leading investor and philanthropist.

He is the Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, his family owned investment company committed to improving lives and transforming Africa, through longterm investments in strategic sectors of the African economy, including financial services, hospitality, power, energy, technology and healthcare.

Tony is the Chairman of pan-African financial services group, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which operates in 20 countries across Africa, the United Kingdom, France, the UAE and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking presence in the United States. UBA provides corporate, commercial, SME and consumer banking services to more than 35 million customers globally. He also chairs Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, one of the leading producers of electricity in Nigeria and Transcorp Hotels Plc, Nigeria’s foremost hospitality brand.

Tony is the most prominent champion of entrepreneurship in Africa. In 2010, he created The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and driving job creation across all 54 African countries. Since inception, the Foundation’s flagship programme has identified and catalysed over 18,000 entrepreneurs and created a digital ecosystem of over one million Africans, as part of a ten year US$100m commitment to fund, mentor and train young Africans.

Tony’s businesses and the Foundation are inspired by his economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

In 2020, in recognition of his business leadership and economic empowerment of young African entrepreneurs, Tony was named in the TIME100 Most Influential People in the World, and recognised with Belgium’s oldest and highest royal order.

Dr. Awele V. Elumelu oversees the healthcare investments in the Heirs Holdings’ portfolio. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Benin.

Her experience as a medical doctor includes general medical practice and emergency medicine. In Nigeria, Dr Elumelu has worked with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and in the UK, with Grantham and District Hospital, Grantham. In November 2020, she was appointed to the Yale Institute for Global Health Advisory Board.

In January 2018, Dr. Elumelu was appointed as the Champion for immunisation in Africa by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).

Emmanuel Nnorom is a qualified chartered accountant, and brings over 3 decades of professional experience in the corporate and financial sectors, working with publicly listed companies.

He has held senior positions at Heirs Holdings and had served as an Executive Director at UBA and Managing Director of UBA Africa, overseeing the Group’s African subsidiaries and executing corporate strategy in 18 African countries. Other senior roles within UBA included Group COO UBA, followed by his appointment as UBA’s Group CFO, with responsibility for Finance and Risk.

Emmanuel is an alumnus of Oxford University’s Templeton College, and a prize winner and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

Dr Tony Chukwueke has over 35 years of experience in the energy industry in Nigeria and internationally, having served at various times as Chief Geophysicist, Value and Portfolio Manager, and Business Development Manager Africa at Shell companies in Nigeria and the UK. Between 2004 and 2009, Tony was an Adviser to the Minister and then Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources where he initiated reforms to production sharing contracts and fiscal arrangements in offshore leases. He holds a first degree in Physics, a Masters in Applied Geophysics and a PhD in Geology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Samuel Nwanze is a versatile Finance and Investment executive with over 22 years of experience in finance, banking, and investments. Previously Chief Investment Officer at Heirs Holdings responsible for the administration and management of the Group’s overall financial activities and investment programmes. Prior to joining Heirs Holdings, Sam worked in banking institutions in various roles where he oversaw strategy, financial control, performance management, treasury, corporate execution; and led a number of local, regional and international deals and projects. He also played a key role in the STB-UBA merger.

He has worked on a number of green and brownfield investments/projects covering oil and gas, power, agriculture, real estate, hospitality, healthcare, technology, financial services and impact investing. He was the Deal Lead for the acquisition of OML17 and associated assets.

He is a regular faculty at the Oxford Said Business School’s Impact Investing programme and has extensive board-level experience both locally and internationally.