NECA gets new exco

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association has elected a new set of executives, including Dr Ifeanyi Okoye as president, Mrs Oyeyimika Adeboye as 1st vice-president, Mr Goran Sladic as 2nd vice-president, and Mr Richard Ayibiowu as treasurer.

The new exco was elected at NECA’s 67th annual general meeting, held recently in Lagos.

Okoye is a pharmacist with an M.Sc. and a PhD in pharmaceutical technology and industrial pharmacy (the best-graduating student in his class) as well as an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.

He is a renowned entrepreneur and industrialist who founded Juhel Nigeria Limited in 1989, the first tablet manufacturing company in Anambra State.

 Okoye’s new factory in Awka was said to be Africa’s largest manufacturer of intravenous drugs and infusions.

According to NECA, he is also highly diversified and involved in other sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Okoye is a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and has successfully attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State.

 He is also a member of the Governing Council of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association and its immediate past treasurer.

Okoye has also been awarded the national honour of the Order of the Federal.

More so, Mrs Oyeyimika Adeboye is the first female managing director/chief executive officer of Cadbury Nigeria Plc, appointed in April 2019.

Before joining Cadbury, she was director of finance/chief finance officer at Nigeria Bottling Company.

She earlier worked with Arthur Andersen & Co. and Midgely & Snelling Accountants in the United Kingdom.

Adeboye has a degree in Economics & Social Studies from the University College Cardiff and an Executive Management Education Certification from the Institute of Management & Development, Lausanne, Switzerland.

She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales.

 Mr Goran Sladic is the managing director/chief executive officer of the Nigerian Bottling Company.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Split.

With a track record of over two decades across diverse markets in Africa and Europe, he was the managing director of Pivara Skopje, a beverage company in Macedonia.

In 2003, he began his career as a sales supervisor at the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company in Split, Croatia.

Over the subsequent 17 years, his trajectory led him through diverse roles, including those of commercial process manager and regional director of Premium Spirits at CCHBC, Croatia.

In 2017, Sladic joined the Nigerian Bottling Company as the regional sales director and national sales director until 2020.

Throughout his tenure in Nigeria, his visionary leadership propelled the company to unprecedented heights of sales performance while spearheading the launch of innovative solutions that revolutionised sales capabilities.

Mr Richard Ayibiowu is the managing director/CEO of Pivot Engineering Services and the chief operating officer of Pivot Energy Services, a group providing oil & gas engineering, maintenance, procurement, construction services, and port concessions.

Before his appointment, he had been the finance director and a member of the board since 2004.

Ayibiowu graduated as a surveying engineer and later qualified as a chartered accountant, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

He is a member of the governing council of the association and the immediate past chairman of the Committee of Finance Experts of NECA.

He acquired a wealth of experience working with Map Data Engineering Services Limited, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Arthur Andersen (now KPMG West Africa).

He later joined the Honeywell Group as the Head of Corporate Planning and he was responsible for business development, corporate finance, strategic planning, budgetary planning and control, reviewing and consolidating financial statements, and managing Special Purpose Vehicles.

Ayibiowu is a director and member of the board of other companies, including NGOs and cooperative societies.

He is currently the chairman of NECA’s Global Certification Limited.