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LEADERSHIP

LEADERsHIP

Executive Director/Chief Creative Officer

Ifeoma Fafunwa is a social impact theatre-maker living and working in Lagos, Nigeria. Her creative activism focuses of gender inequality and the empowerment of women. She is the founder and creative director of iOpenEye Africa, a Nigerian non-profit production company that utilises performance art to challenge the status quo and drive societal change.
      She co-wrote and directed the stage play HEAR WORD! which challenges social, cultural and political norms that limit the potential and contribution of women.  Ifeoma is a fellow at the Aspen Institute, the Radcliffe Institute and a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.  She is a recipient of the 2020 McNulty Catalyst prize.  She is married and has four children.

our board

our board

Advisory Board

Habiba Balogun is an Organisation Effectiveness and HR Consultant with over 28 years of leadership experience. She is an executive and leadership coach, a sought-after moderator, team builder, trainer, and public speaker.  She is also a diversity champion, social justice activist and one of the Lagos coordinators for the Bring Back Our Girls movement.
     Habiba is multi-lingual, speaking her native Ebira and five European languages. She is a fellow of the Aspen Leadership Network, the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa, and the Africa Board Fellowship. She is an experienced board member who has served on several for-profit, NGO, Women and social entrepreneurship boards.
Caroline Elkins is Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and the founding director of Harvard’s Center for African Studies. She received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. 
        Elkins’ research focuses on empire, violence, liberalism, and insecurity, with a particular focus on Africa and various regions of the former British Empire including parts of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Her first book, Imperial Reckoning:  The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2006.  It was also one of The Economist’s Best Books for 2005, an Editor’s Choice for The New York Times, a Waterstone’s Best Writer for 2005, and a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for nonfiction. 
Audu Maikori is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur, entertainment lawyer, and creative industry expert. He is the Founder/Executive Vice Chairman of Chocolate City Group - a media/entertainment company. He is a passionate advocate for social justice and entrepreneurship as an economic empowerment driver. 
        He is a globally recognized pioneer of Afrobeats music. He's the president of the board of the Esports company Unanimous Games LLC and serves in numerous other boards and entrepreneurial judging panels. 
    Born in Kaduna, Nigeria, he attended King's College Lagos and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2001. He has also served as legal counsel in several corporations in Nigeria. He is an alumnus of the University of Jos, Pan African University, Lagos, MIT, and Sloan School of management in Boston.
Sumru Erkut Ph.D., a psychologist, senior scholar, former senior research scientist, and former associate director at the Wellesley Centers for Women). Her research focuses on racial/ethnic diversity and gender equity in leadership and development. Along with her team, they found that three or more women directors can critically improve the functioning of corporate boards, and her work resulted in Inside Women’s Power: Learning from Leaders.
     Erkut's research seeks solutions on achieving greater gender diversity in theater leadership positions, as reported in Women's Leadership in Resident Theaters. The research led Erkut to identify biases in how artistic and executive directors were selected and issued recommendations to achieve greater equity and inclusion.

our team 

our team

Performing Artists

our crew

our designers

Creatives

our crew

our crew

Collaborators 

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