Ellah Lakes

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Ellah Lakes - Building Sustainable Agribusinesses.

Executive Team

Olumide Akpata - Chairman

Olumide Akpata is a Partner at Templars (one of the leading Law firms in Nigeria ) and he is currently the Head of the Corporate and Commercial Practice Group.

He has over two decades of experience in advising clients on various aspects of Nigerian Corporate and Commercial Law, and has been recognised by IFLR 1000 as a leading Mergers & Acquisition lawyer in Nigeria and by Chambers and Partners “as having long experience in representing foreign clients” in his area of practice.

Olu is often called upon to speak at local and international conferences and seminars and currently sits on the Council of the Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law. He is also the Vice-Chair (West-Africa) of the International Bar Association’s Africa Regional Forum.

Chuka Mordi - Chief Executive Officer

Chuka has over 20 years’ experience spanning investment management, financial advisory and corporate leadership, acquired in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. 

Chuka was a founding partner of CBO Capital and the former Head of Infrastructure Financing at First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Lagos. He began his career at SBC Warburg and subsequently worked as an Equities Analyst for Hardman & Co. Ltd. where he focused on UK AIM stocks, and subsequently, European equities at Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM). 

At CBO, Chuka was jointly responsible for servicing over 50 client mandates, with a transaction value in excess of $2bn, whilst deploying over $50 million in the capital as a principal investor. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and has a B.A. Philosophy from Kings College, University of London.

Paul Farrer - Deputy Managing Director

Paul Farrer is the Deputy Managing Director of Ellah Lakes Plc. Mr Farrer is responsible for the operational growth and development of the Company, and the expansion of Ellah Lakes.

Prior to this appointment, Paul Farrer was the Country Manager for Innscor International, and before then, he was the Group Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer of Food Concepts Plc.

His last Seven (7) Years in Nigerian Private sector, have been spent as the CEO of Nascon Allied Industries PLC, leading a team of over 600 staff. NASCON Allied Industries Plc. is also listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

 

Evans Gbugbemi Jakpa - Director

He has a BSc, Psychology and MA in International Business and Marketing from London Metropolitan University. Has over 10 years’ experience in oil & gas and senior management and leadership roles with a special talent for negotiating solutions to complex situations. Skilled at establishing and maintaining strategy partnership to generate essential business opportunities.

He was the General Manager Business Development at Energy Equity Resources (EER)  a London based Exploration and production company, and then worked for Delta State, on Oil & Gas development. He worked on a $45m of direct foreign investment into the state for the acquisition, restructuring & transformation of a 17 acre, moribund state owned timber company, into a 10,000 bpd modular refinery.

Hauwa Nuru - Director

Hauwa Nuru was the General Manager of the Finance and Accounts department, EKO Electricity Distribution Company.

She successfully reorganized and restructured the Finance Department to implement effective standard operating procedures for the Finance, Banking and Treasury Departments.

As a member of the Critical Strategies and Implementation Team, she provided fundamental contribution to innovative projects within the organisation by developing, compiling and assessing new projects. These have included the implementation of new policies and procedures and the updating, review and implementation of Regulatory Policies.

Jamie Rixton – Chief Agronomist

Jamie has over 35 years’ relevant industry and corporate leadership experience acquired across 22 African countries and the United Kingdom. He specializes in mechanized farming of cash crops and has led mechanization of operations of a single farm in excess of 30,000 hectares. He held leadership positions in leading multinational corporations including Massey Ferguson, Challenger, Valtra Africa, John Deere & Co., and Bara Group.

Jamie has a Bachelors from the University of Reading.

Nnenna Onyewuchi - Director

Nnenna Onyewuchi is a founding partner of Yellow Brick Road, & Blackbox, and has over  Fifteen (15) Years of experience in Strategic marketing communications. Starting her career at McCann Erickson, New York, she managed business development activities for the New York office and coordinating offices across the network for global pitches, before moving into Strategic Planning, where she rose to the position of Vice President.

While at McCann, she helped conceive Tag Ideation, a lifestyle marketing practice group, developing a set of proprietary research tools and co-designing a proprietary branding model. She returned to Nigeria in 2004 and worked  in experiential marketing, production and pay-TV before returning to advertising in 2007 when she joined ZK Advertsing as Director of Strategy. In 2011, Nnenna and her partners, in an MBO, founded Yellow  Brick Road, growing it into one of Nigeria’s most respected agencies.

Shehu Abubakar - Director

Mr. Abubakar serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Unified Payment. He has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry during which time he held strategic positions in different Banks finally retiring as an Executive Director. 

In the course of his career, Mr. Abubakar has attended many courses within and outside Nigeria including the Lagos Business School, Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School and Wharton Business School among others and has a wide range of experience in Strategy, Leadership & Executive Management, Customer Relations and Management and Corporate Finance, among others.