Who we are

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

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.
Our Mission
To empower and support successful professionals and entrepreneurs managing family-owned businesses who are committed to transforming generational wealth to sustainable philanthropy.

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 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.  With over 25 years of experience in development finance, specifically in Africa, she now focuses on how to enhance organizational health and corporate governance as a key driver for stronger development finance outcomes.

Eme spent over 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.  She served as Country Manager for IFC’s Nigeria office from 2014 through 2021.    As Country Manager, she had oversight of IFC’s investment and advisory activities in Nigeria, the largest single country exposure in Sub-Saharan Africa and fifth largest globally at over $2 billion in sectors including energy, manufacturing, healthcare and financial institutions.  She guided efforts for government engagement, business development, integrity due diligence, deal execution and portfolio management.  Eme has represented IFC as a speaker and panelist at scores of conferences and seminars to strategically position the IFC brand and underscore its mission.   As a member of the IFC Africa Department management team, she played an important role in the development and execution of the regional strategy.

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 spent several years at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office in Nairobi where she supported the development and execution of several initiatives, including youth employment and impact investing.   Her time at Rockefeller Foundation seeded her interest in the role of corporate philanthropy in development.   Her early years working in finance and investment banking honed her skills in financial analysis and appreciation for the need for investing for impact.  She is the chair of the African Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Eme is a skilled facilitator.  While serving as a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Advocate at IFC and as a member of the IFC D&I Council, she has facilitated many senior level discussions on unconscious bias, a key learning tool for D&I awareness raising.  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.

She 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.

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.

Ndidi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), AGRA, the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, Nigerian Breweries Plc. (Heineken), Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. India, Fairfax Africa Holdings Canada, Royal DSM Sustainability Board, Netherlands, and the African Philanthropy Forum. She previously served on the Boards of Nestle Nigeria Plc., the World Vegetable Center, Businessday Newspapers and Cornerstone Insurance Plc.

Ndidi started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, working in Chicago, New York, and Johannesburg. She returned to Nigeria in 2000 to serve as the pioneer executive director of FATE Foundation, supporting young entrepreneurs to start and scale their businesses. In 2002, she established LEAP Africa to inspire, empower, and equip a new cadre of principled, disciplined, and dynamic young leaders in Africa. In the same year, she established NIA to support female university students in Nigeria to achieve their highest potential.

Ndidi is the co-founder and Executive Chair of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition, which works across Africa shaping policies and implementing ecosystem solutions. As the co-founder of AACE Foods, which produces a range of packaged spices, seasonings, snacks and cereals for local and international markets, Ndidi has propelled the growth of a catalytic business. As the founder of Nourishing Africa, a digital funding, training and knowledge hub, she is supporting entrepreneurs in 37 African countries.  Her latest start-up is Changing Narratives Africa committed to changing global mindsets about Africa by showcasing the Continent’s contributions to the global food ecosystem through the pioneering work of her dynamic people, their innovations, and products.

Ndidi was recognized as a Young Global Leader and a Schwab Social Innovator by the World Economic Forum and received a National Honor from the Nigerian Government. She was recognized as one of the 20 Power African Women by Forbes, as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African Magazine and received the 2021 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Awards, the highest honors given by the school. She is a TED Global and TED Women speaker.

Ndidi 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. She is also the author of “Working for God in the Marketplace.”

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