Who we are

Helping families and family businesses in Africa and beyond to move from first-generation wealth to multi-generational
impact

Our Mission
To empower and support successful professionals and entrepreneurs managing family-owned businesses who are committed to transforming generational wealth to sustainable philanthropy.
Our Vision
Communities of African descent thriving globally driven by successful professionals and entrepreneurs who have created generational wealth, transformed lives and left sustainable legacies.

Why We Exist

Most family businesses around the world don’t survive the first generation. Those that do often fail in the second generation.  In Africa, where the private sector is still nascent and struggling in challenging business environments, the failure rate is even higher.   At the root of this situation are inadequate governance structures and family dynamics that interfere with decision making for the long-term sustainability of the business.

The challenge of generating and sustaining generational wealth extends to communities in the Americas and Europe where black businesses and entrepreneurs have faced the additional obstacles of systemic racism and exploitation, and exclusion from the global financial services and investment ecosystem.

Many successful professionals and entrepreneurs are struggling to engage their children and grandchildren into effective stewardship and the creation of generational wealth.

Though deeply desirous of having a sustainable approach for philanthropy, most black families have no clear roadmap for giving and spend their limited resources on efforts responding to emergency needs and requests, with no sustainable plans for generational philanthropy

Many family businesses often do not pursue third party advisory support because of a strong concern around confidentiality.  Without objective and seasoned outsider perspectives, most successful family businesses and professionals will likely fail to take key decisions that will best secure their legacy to have multi-generational impact.

Our Approach

When philanthropic entities are well run, the potential to enhance impact can grow exponentially. The opposite is also true. We have seen too many foundations created through the blood, sweat and tears of the founder falter and even fail when faced with strategic shifts and questions of succession.

Our approach is to work closely with the leadership and key management staff of organizations to come up with a governance structure that is fit for purpose but allows the organization to adapt what can be shifting landscape. This process requires developing buy-in from the stakeholders and therefore our method is to invest in developing that buy-in while focusing on achieving the stated goals.

Meet our Founders

Eme Essien Lore

Eme Essien Lore is an experienced development finance professional with a demonstrated history of effective team leadership resulting in measurable outcomes. She is also an advocate for a People-Planet-Profits Agenda in Africa and a thought leader on the role of organizational health in firm performance.

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Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is an expert on African agriculture and nutrition, entrepreneurship, social innovation, and youth development. She has over 25 years of international development experience and is a recognized serial entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and consultant.

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Eme Essien Lore is an advocate for a People-Planet-Profits Agenda in Africa. Sustainability has been at the center of her work as a development finance professional.  Eme spent almost two decades at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where she worked in several capacities including as Country Manager for IFC’s Nigeria office.  There, she led efforts for government engagement, business development, integrity due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management.  She also supported the World Bank’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts by sitting on the internal council and facilitating staff dialogue on unconscious bias.  She spent several years at the Rockefeller Foundation in Nairobi where she supported the development and execution of several initiatives focusing on Africa, including youth employment and impact investing. A skilled facilitator, she now focuses on enhancing organizational health and corporate governance as a key driver for stronger development finance outcomes.  She is a certified Working Genius facilitator, helping teams, individuals and companies to improve productivity by identifying and utilizing the talents and passions of all team members.

In 2021, she co-founded Wealth4Impact, an advisory non-profit which supports the scaling of family led philanthropy in Africa.  She also serves as a Senior Advisor for Organizational Health and Corporate Governance at ESG Africa, which works with private companies to help them identify, assess and manage the environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities inherent in their business models.

She has significant experience working in the oil and gas sectors with global clients as well as in East Africa where she developed and processed business leads for a range of sectors and served on the advisory and executive boards of IFC investee private equity funds and microfinance institutions in the East Africa region.  During her time at IFC, she also took on oversight role of an Africa-wide portfolio of SME investment and capacity building projects.   She also supports the efforts of the IFC Africa corporate governance team to enhance business development activities.  As a senior advisor, she works with fund managers and other entities to develop and execute their Africa strategies, including ESG Africa where she is a Senior Advisor for Organizational Health.

Eme sits on several global and regional corporate boards spanning sectors such as infrastructure, healthcare and financial services, where she has a role to enhance and oversee the sustainability agenda.   Eme is Nigerian American, but Kenya has become her adopted home.  She lives in Nairobi with her husband and sons.  Eme is a graduate of Columbia College at Columbia University; she also earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; and an MA from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is an entrepreneur, business leader, and author with three decades of experience in international development, consumer goods, food systems, strategic consulting, and philanthropy. She has worked extensively across Africa, driving business growth, shaping policies, and galvanizing the next generation of leaders through her roles as founder of LEAP Africa and African Food Changemakers and Co-Founder of Sahel Consulting, and AACE Foods. She recently served as the President/CEO of ONE, overseeing teams in the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, the UK, Canada, the Nordics, South Africa, Nigeria, and Senegal, and galvanizing billions in investment to ensure healthier lives and economic opportunities in Africa. She started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company’s Chicago office, serving global fast-moving consumer goods companies in North America.

Ndidi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Fondation Chanel, Stanbic IBTC Group, the ONE Campaign, and the Bridgespan Group. She previously served on the Boards of Godrej Consumer Products India, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries (Heineken) Plc, the African Philanthropy Forum, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Helios-Fairfax Africa, and Cornerstone Insurance.

Ndidi holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, an undergraduate degree with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. She was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a visiting Scholar at Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow.

Ndidi is a TED speaker, was recognized as a Schwab Fellow and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a National Honor by the Nigerian Government and the Harvard Business School Distinguished Alumni Award. She is the author of “Social Innovation in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact,” and “Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses,” both published by Routledge, “Walking for God in the Marketplace,” and contributed a chapter to For the World’s Profit: How Business Can Support Sustainable Development by the Brookings Institute.