OUR TEAM
Noble Pepple is Executive Director/CEO of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency. He studied Business Administration at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt and Environment and Development from the London School of Economics. Noble joined Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited in 1988 and has held several positions of managerial responsibility in Community Relations, Public & Government Affairs, Sustainable Development, Communications, Issues Management and a number of special management projects. Between 1997 and 2003, Noble worked at the Shell Corporate Headquarters in London. He has also served as Regional External Affairs Manager and was elected Chairman of the Public Affairs Sub-Committee of the Oil Producers Trade Sector (the main oil and gas industry body) between 2008 and 2009.
A. Igoni Barrett was born in 1979 in Port Harcourt. In 2005, he won the BBC World Service short story competition for one of the stories in his well-received collection entitled From Caves of Rotten Teeth. He has worked on the editorial team of Farafina magazine and is the founding organizer of the BookJam reading series in Lagos, Nigeria. He has been awarded a Chinua Achebe Center fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy. Barrett's new collection of stories, Love Is Power, Or Something Like That, is due to be published in the UK and US in 2013.
Effie White has a BA in Economics from the University of Leeds and MA in Television Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. She has extensive experience in the media, working initially in advertising with newspapers such as the Financial Times before forging a career as a journalist in radio and Television in the UK. She has edited community newsletters both in the UK and Nigeria, is heavily involved in charity projects in her community and is cofounder of the Hope Alive Foundation, a charity aimed at making education accessible for communities in underprivileged areas. Effie is originally from Ghana.
Judy Nwanodi is the only child of Professor Alexander Oppenheim and Lady Beatrice of Raffles College, Singapore. Educated in Northwestern University, USA, she proceeded to the prestigious University of Oxford for a B.A. Hons. Geography. She has held several appointments in the educational sector in Rivers State. Mrs. Nwanodi is one of the first of nine life members of the Rivers State branch of the National Council of Women's Society. She is a member of several charity associations including Nigerwives.
Anthony Epelle is the CEO of Samuelson Consulting and Chairman of the CIBN Syndicate Group on Human Capital Development. His work experienced spans 30 years, as a Chartered Accountant, Certified Trainer, Consultant and project management expert. Tony served as the pioneer Managing Director of Partnership Savings & Loans Limited and Haggai Investment and Trust Company Limited. A regular columnist in Business Day Newspapers, Tony has also been actively in public sector projects for the Rivers State Government. Epelle graduated with a BSc. in Economics from the University of Ibadan and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Theology and Leadership Studies.
Ndidi Nwuneli is the cofounder of AACE Foods and Director of Sahel Capital. She started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, working in their Chicago, New York and Johannesburg Offices. She returned to Nigeria and established NIA which empowers female university students to achieve their highest potential in life and LEAP Africa which provides leadership, ethics and management training and coaching for youth, business owners, social entrepreneurs and the public sector. LEAP also conducts leadership research and has published numerous books on succession, governance, ethics and leadership. Ndidi holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School and received her undergraduate degree with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on numerous international boards including USAID's Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) and the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership.
