Two Americans of Nigerian descent have been named as advisors by US President Joe Biden.
The two new members of the President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States, Osagie Imasogie and Chiney Ogwumike, are two of the council’s 12 members.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), congratulated the pair on their selection and added that their inclusion on the 12-member advisory council should serve as inspiration for other Africans and Nigerians in general.
She added in a statement released on Wednesday by the commission’s spokesman, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, that the nomination of the two outstanding Nigerians to the advisory council was a positive step.
In addition to being a full-time, multi-platform ESPN pundit and NBA analyst, Chinenye Ogwumike is a two-time WNBA All-Star with the Los Angeles Sparks.
She is one of the few full-time professional athletes who simultaneously works as a full-time regular broadcaster for the national sports media.
Ogwumike won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and has made two All-Star games (in 2014 and 2018). She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in international relations under the guidance of Dr. Condoleezza Rice and is a proud Nigerian-American.
She made history by being the first Black woman to host a daily national sports-talk radio show in August 2020.
The ESPN Films documentary “144” on the 2020 WNBA season was produced by the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 honoree who also has the position of Executive Producer.
On the other side, Osagie Imasogie is the Chairman of Quoin Capital and Quoin Advisors, an investment bank and SEC/FINRA-registered broker-dealer.
Imasogie also co-founded PIPV Capital, a private equity company that specializes in the bio sciences sector and has made over $1 billion in investments there.
He founded GlaxoSmithKline Ventures and served as its founding Vice President before helping to form PIPV Capital.
In pharma firms including GSK, SmithKline Beecham, and DuPont Merck, Imasogie has held key marketing and R&D responsibilities. He has also worked as a corporate finance partner for Price Waterhouse and as an attorney at renowned American law firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis.
Imasogie is a seasoned businessman and investor who sits on the boards of many organizations that oversee more than $28 billion, including FS-KKR Capital Corp. and Haverford Trust. He serves as a consultant for Brown Advisory, a company that oversees more than $140 billion.
Imasogie is a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Imasogie also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property and is the Chairman of the Board of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He is a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of its Executive Committee.
Imasogie has an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a London School of Economics LLM. She is also admitted to practice law in additional states and is a member of the New York State Bar.
(Channels)