Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

Senior Partner and IC Member

Mr. Aig-Imoukhuede is a highly respected private sector leader in Africa. He founded Coronation Capital in 2014 and serves on the Investment Committee. His track record spans 30-years encompassing acquisitions and restructurings within the banking industry.

He was the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer and led Access Bank from 2002, overseeing its transformation into one of the top five banks in Nigeria with a presence in the United Kingdom and 9 African countries. Under his stewardship, Access Bank was able to grow its customer base from 10,000 (2002) to circa 6.5 million (2014) with 20,000 employees and an asset base of USD 12 billion. He is a past President of The Nigerian Stock Exchange, co-founder of the FMDQ OTC Exchange, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Market Dealers Association, and Co-Chairman of the UK-Nigeria Capital Market Task Force. He holds a Trium Global EMBA degree from the London School of Economics, NYU Stern Business School and HEC Paris, an LLB degree from the University of Benin and a BL from the Nigerian Law School.

A strong philanthropist, he established the Africa Initiative for Governance to improve the quality of public sector leadership in West Africa.

John Opubor

Managing Partner and IC Member

Mr. Opubor has enjoyed a 20-year career as a principal investor and investment banker in developed, emerging and frontier markets. At Coronation Capital, he leads deal sourcing and deal execution across Financial Services, Technology and Consumer Goods & Services. He also works on secondary buyout initiatives for Coronation Capital and is a member of the Investment Committee. He has acted as a principal or advisor on a broad array of transactions in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. As a principal investor he has deployed capital and exited deals in both early stage and growth stage businesses within the retail, media, consumer, manufacturing and financial services sectors in Africa and North America. During his investment banking (M&A) career, he advised clients on announced transactions in excess of USD 50 billion within the industrials, telecom, retail & consumer and healthcare sectors, amongst others. He has previously held senior positions at Actis in Lagos, Nigeria and Credit Suisse in New York. Earlier in his career he held roles of increasing responsibility at Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Provender Capital Group.

He earned a BA in Economics from Columbia University and currently serves as the President of the Columbia University Club of Nigeria.
 

Ahovi Kponou

Partner and IC Member

Mr. Kponou has a multi-faceted financial services background with over 20 years’ experience in buy-side investing, investment banking and entrepreneurship.

At Coronation Capital, he is a member of the Investment Committee and oversees financial modelling, deal analysis and post-entry support for Fund I and Fund II investments. He joined Coronation Capital in 2015 and has managed all Fund I investments including Coronation Merchant Bank, Petralon Energy and Wapic Insurance. He has invested in or advised companies throughout developed markets in North America/Europe as well as emerging/frontier markets in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East. As an investment professional, he has 15 years of buy-side experience investing across the capital structure in private equity, distressed debt and public equity opportunities in a variety of industries. He has worked at private equity firms including PanAfrican Investment Co. and Oak Hill Partners, at hedge funds including Outpost Partners and Para Advisors LLC and at investment banks including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

He earned his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business with a concentration in Finance and International Business, he has an MS in Engineering-Economic Systems and a BA in Quantitative Economics also from Stanford University.

Charles Ogunwuyi

Partner and IC Member

Mr. Ogunwuyi is a respected general management and business transformation professional with over 20 years work experience driving top-line and bottom line impact. He has held several senior management positions at Ford Motor Company North America, Guinness Nigeria Plc. (a subsidiary of Diageo U.K. Plc.) where he was Director of Strategy and Business Transformation, and until most recently, the Director of Retail Sales at “Etisalat Nigeria” a subsidiary of U.A.E-based multinational telecommunications service provider, Emirates Telecommunications Corporation.

He has extensive international and emerging markets experience, having worked and lived in South-East Asia, Europe and the US. He has broad management and hands–on operational experience in growth strategy development, marketing/sales and customer experience effectiveness, supply chain/distribution optimization, and business transformation/change management within the consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, automotive and technology sectors.

He is a Moore Fellow and has an MS in Engineering–Management of Technology from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and the Wharton School, an MS in Computer and Information Systems from the University of Detroit and a BS in Economics from the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.

Arthur Arnold

Independent Director and IC Member

Mr. Arnold is a member of the Coronation Capital Investment Committee for Fund II. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Member of the Advisory Board of XSML where he acts as an independent advisor to the management team. He chairs the Board of The Currency Exchange (TCX) Fund and is a member of its Remuneration and Nomination committee. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden NV (FMO), the Dutch Development Bank, from 2005 until the end of 2008 which invested over $800 million in Africa under his leadership.

He is a member of the FISEA Supervisory Board which has invested $285 million into Africa since 2009. He is a member of the Investment Committee at Vantage Capital, overseeing over $300 million investments in Africa across Fund I and Fund II. He is the Goodwell Microfinance Fund II Chairman (Supervisory Board) which has invested over $13.5 million into Africa since 2010. He is an Oragroup SA member of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Good Governance Committee. He has invaluable insights into emerging markets development, new investments, restructuring and scaling businesses. He studied at Erasmus University, INSEAD and the Harvard Business School.

Ernest Ebi

Independent Director and IC Member

Mr. Ebi is a member of the Coronation Capital Investment Committee for Fund II. In 1999, he was appointed as a Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria where he served for 10 years.

He maintained oversight functions over Nigeria’s External Reserves, International Economic Relations, Trade & Exchange and Research Departments among other responsibilities. From 1993 to 1999, he served in executive leadership roles at various Nigerian banks including Diamond Bank, New Nigerian Bank, African Continental Bank. In 1981, he joined the International Merchant Bank (IMB) Plc, where he was head of the Treasury Department and the Chief Credit Officer over a period of 12 years. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Vice President/Controller at the Community Federal Savings and Loan Association, Washington D.C. 

In recognition of his achievements, the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2007 awarded him the National Honor of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR). In the same year, the Chartered Institute of Bankers also awarded him a Fellow of the Institute (FCIB). He attended Howard University, Washington D.C., where he graduated with a BBA in Marketing and an MBA.  He sits on the boards of several blue-chip companies including Dangote Cement.

Tolulope Popoola

Investment Associate

Mr. Popoola is an investment professional with over 8 years’ experience spanning equity research, portfolio management and financial advisory. He started his career in ARM Pensions, the second largest pension fund manager in Nigeria, where he worked as an investment management analyst, providing analytical support to portfolio managers and managed over USD1 billion in retirement assets on behalf of retail and institutional clients.

He subsequently worked in Deloitte where he advised private equity firms and other institutional investors on several acquisition transactions in Nigeria and Ghana. His core specialization in Deloitte included financial due diligence, business valuation and sell-side process management. Tolulope holds a BA in Economics from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a CFA Charterholder.

Franklin Ajaegbu

Financial Controller

Mr Ajaegbu is a Chartered Accountant and finance professional with over 6 years of experience in consulting, audit and assurance services. Prior to joining Coronation Capital, he was a Senior Associate in the financial services unit (Audit division) of KPMG Professional Services Ltd. (Nigeria) where he worked as team lead and senior team member on various audit engagements which covered commercial banking, investment banking, pension funds and fund managers, capital markets, insurance companies and property/real estate companies. His area of expertise includes financial reporting and analysis, audit and assurance, internal controls, corporate finance, financial management, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and private equity accounting.

He is an Associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and has a BSc in Accounting from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He is currently a level 3 candidate of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program.