Chidi Iwuchukwu
Chidi is currently the Head (DGM) Leveraged Finance- West Africa at Rand Merchant Bank where he sits on the Management team for Investment Banking in Nigeria. Prior to joining RMB, he held several roles at Standard Chartered Bank including Director Leveraged Finance- Corporate Finance Africa/ Middle East, Director/ Principal, Leveraged Finance- Corporate Finance Africa/ Middle East, Principal, Local Corporate Nigeria, Associate Director Client Solutions Team Africa, and Associate Director, OCC (Origination and Client Coverage).
During his time at Standard Chartered, Chidi oversaw several high value transactions including creating a $125m working capital structure for a steel trader using bonds as collateral thus eliminating the use of SBLCs, financing a $500m Oil Service contract by creating a hybrid of working capital solutions, closed $1billion leverage finance transaction for a green field refinery and petrochemical plant in Nigeria, and $400m refinancing for a GE led SPV for new power plants for an existing power company, just to mention a few.
Chidi holds a first degree (hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nigeria, an Erasmus (triple) Master’s degree from De Monfort Univeristy University of Applied Science where he majored in Energy policy, Alternative Energy: Bio-gas, Solar, Hydrogen, Wind Turbines and Waste, and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.
Lawrence Akinrulie
Lawrence is the managing director of Dynasty Real Estate Ltd, an Abuja based real estate investments and development firm. With vast experience in financial services, Mr. Akinrulie was Group Head, Products and Marketing, at New Prudential Mortgage Bank Ltd, where he oversaw Northern operations until December 2014; securing over N1bn National Housing Fund offer from Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. Prior to that, he worked in several key capacities at ASO Savings and Loans Plc, where his last position was as Head, Property Sales and Inventory Management, overseeing over N30bn worth of the bank’s assets.
He has also worked for Asset & Resource Management (ARM) and Hallmark Assurance. Mr. Akinrulie holds a B.Tech. degree from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, and an MBA from the Business School Netherlands. He is also certified in numerous specialty areas, including consumer & real estate lending, strategic business & financial modelling, credit risk analysis and International Financial Reporting.
Dr. Uzoamaka Egbuche
Uzoamaka Egbuche is an ecologist specialising in several aspects of sustainability and environmental resource management. As Managing Consultant CERASE Solutions Limited, she has worked with local and international corporates, such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Federal Ministry of Environment, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and several private sectors clients.
Dr Egbuche also consults for the Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBS) on green growth through the Nationally Determined Contributions. HBS has supported the emergence of the actors in renewable energy and best practice for clean energy as a growth driver.
She volunteers as the lead facilitator; Sustainability Policy Commission for the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and collaborates with the PMO National LPG Adoption Programme of the Office of the Vice President for right actions to drive new concepts for inclusive growth as the fundamental response to Nigeria’s rapidly declining natural environment in the face of deep poverty and widening inequalities.