Leadership

We are building a growing affiliate network of trusted professionals across Africa

Clem Ugorji

Founder & Lead Advisor

Don Dussey

Consultant

Bob Okello

Consultant

Erastus Mtiu

Consultant

Noah Zimba

Consultant

Kweku Attafuah-Wadee

Consultant

The Circularium network is led by Clem Ugorji, a business leader, strategic communications professional and Africa regional expert on public policy, the circular economy and multisector partnerships. He has over 25 years of management, senior leadership and Board level experience in the financial services, technology and FMCG sectors as well as deep insights and strategic relationships across the region.

Clem is a Consultant to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), providing strategic advisory as well as project implementation support for the National Plastic Action Partnerships (NPAP) in Nigeria and Ghana. Prior to founding Circularium, Clem had an exciting 14-year career at The Coca-Cola Company where he held positions of increasing responsibility, rising from Communications Manager for Nigeria and Equatorial Africa Division to Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability (2016-2021) covering 33 countries across West and Mid Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. He was a member of the Regional Leadership Team and a Director on the Board of Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited.

As VP for PACS, Clem led high-impact, win-win strategies for government relations, public policy and regulatory engagements, social impact as well as corporate reputation and influence, successfully assuring social license and growth-enabling policy environment for the Coca-Cola business across markets.

He convened, led or played active roles in industry and multistakeholder platforms at national and regional levels to co-create policies, regulations and other initiatives that delivered blended business and social goals on diverse issues, including taxes, public health, corporate water stewardship, women economic empowerment, sustainable packaging and plastic pollution.

Over the last 10 years Clem has worked extensively to galvanize industry and multistakeholder action on sustainable development initiatives, including the circular economy for plastics. Among other roles, he was the founder and pioneer coordinator of the Food & Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA Nigeria); a founding member and coordinator of the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance (APRA); a founding Board member of the Private Sector Advisory Group on the SDGs (Nigeria); an Associate Director of the American Business Council; and a member of the Technical Committee of the Ghana National Plastics Action Partnership (NPAP). He currently serves a member of the Sustainability Policy Commission at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group; the Nigerian Circular Economy Working Group (NCEWG) and supports the coordination of the Multistakeholder Regional Workstream on Circular Plastics Economy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Regional Action
Group for Africa.

Clem holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies.

Clem Ugorji is a business leader, a strategic communications professional and Africa regional expert on public policy, the circular economy and multisector partnerships with over 25 years of management, senior leadership and Board level experience in the financial services, technology and FMCG sectors as well as deep insights and strategic relationships across the region.

Clem is a Consultant to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), providing strategic advisory as well as project implementation support for the National Plastic Action Partnerships (NPAP) in Nigeria and Ghana. Prior to this, he had an exciting 14-year career at The Coca-Cola Company where he held positions of increasing responsibility, rising from Communications Manager for Nigeria and Equatorial Africa Division to Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability (2016-2021) covering 33 countries across West and Mid Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. He was a member of the Regional Leadership Team and
a Director on the Board of Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited.

As VP for PACS, Clem led high-impact, win-win strategies for government relations, public policy/regulatory engagements, social impact and corporate reputation and influence, assuring social license and growth-enabling policy environment for the business across markets. He convened, led or played active roles in industry and multistakeholder platforms at national and regional levels to co-create policies, regulations and other initiatives that delivered blended business and social goals on diverse issues, including taxes, public health, corporate water stewardship, women economic empowerment, sustainable packaging and plastic pollution.

Over the last 10 years, Clem has worked extensively to galvanize industry and multistakeholder action on sustainable development initiatives, including the circular economy for plastics. Among other roles, he was the founder and pioneer coordinator of the Food & Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA Nigeria); a founding member and coordinator of the Africa Plastics Recycling Alliance (APRA); a founding Board member of the Private Sector Advisory Group on the SDGs (Nigeria); an Associate Director of the American Business Council (Nigeria); a member of the Technical Committee of the Ghana National Plastics Action Partnership (NPAP). He currently serves as a member of the Sustainability Policy Commission at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group; the Nigerian Circular Economy Working Group (NCEWG) and supports the coordination of the Multistakeholder Regional Workstream on Circular Plastics Economy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Regional Action Group for Africa.

Clem holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Abuja and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies from the Lagos State University, both in Nigeria. He is a member of the faculty of the Rome Business School, Lagos, where facilitates classes on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation.

Don Dussey is a business leader with a unique combination of strategic management, corporate communications, government and public relations, and business development experience with Fortune 500 enterprises.

He had more than 18 years corporate career experience in positions of increasing responsibility at British American Tobacco Company and The Coca-Cola Company managing government relations and public affairs across 33 markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this capacity, Don lived in multiple countries in the region and played a critical role in government engagement, tax negotiations and business development that informed these companies’ investment decisions inseveral countries, including Ghana, Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritius, Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola.

Following his resignation from The Coca-Cola Company in January 2021 as the Business Unit Director in charge of the World Without Waste Program for the region, the Coca-Cola global flagship initiative for circular packaging, Don founded Premium Partners, a B2B company with the ambition to become the benchmark in the field of business support. He is also an associate founder of Bel’Habitat, an architectural and construction company based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast with operations across West Africa.

Don has played active membership and leadership roles in industry, business coalitions and multisector platforms in several countries, including Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana as well as in Côte d’Ivoire, where he served as Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce. He is an active member of the Confédération Générale des Entreprises en Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI).

With a pre-PhD degree in environmental law and politics from the universities of Maastricht, Liege, Lome and Benin as well as a Master’s degree in Regulatory Laws from the Cheick Anta Diop University in Senegal, Don is currently completing the Executive Master in Business Unit Management (MUST) /Global Executive Master in Management (GEMM) programmes at the HEC Paris, Europe’s number 1 business school) and is an active member of the Confédération Générale des Entreprises en Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI). He Don is a passionate fan of football, tennis and gastronomy. He is married with three children.

Bob has over 18 years cross-sector regional experience in risk and crisis mitigation, public affairs, communications, stakeholder & government relations. He spent several years representing major corporates across the continent on policy, trade, and sustainability
dialogues as well as playing devil’s advocate with stakeholders of various shades.

Starting his career with Kenya’s Standard Newspapers as business reporter, Bob later joined Ogilvy &Mather Kenya and grew to head the PR division before moving to Procter & Gamble East Africa where he is credited with the national public policy campaign in Kenya that mandated the provision of hygienic sanitary pads to girls in low income public schools and commercially transformed the hygienic feminine care category. He then joined The Coca-Cola Company to lead the public affairs and government relations function across East Africa where he excelled at building and leveraging high-value relationships; championed several high impact tri-sector collaborations in value added agribusiness in Kenya and Uganda and a sustainable supply chain model for medicines distribution in Tanzania; and oversaw the setting up of the first ever Kenya PET recycling initiative around a viable and sustainable model.

As the Africa lead for Coca-Cola EKOCENTRE, a customizable, entrepreneur-operated retail outlet designed to deliver essentials to communities in need, Bob led the evolution of the EKOCENTER from a standalone kiosk into a tri-sector social enterprise model
that leverages the convening power of the Coca-Cola system to mobilize partners in helping communities address their unique needs. Throughout his professional career.

Bob has always leveraged his communication skills to better engage customers and stakeholders – molding public opinion, orchestrating narratives, and processing leaders. He has passionately advocated and led public policy campaigns that and eased/reduced cost of doing business sustainably. He straps meaningful on-the-ground experiences in his boots to credibly engage stakeholders at all levels across the continent.

He serves on the board of Livelyhoods, a social enterprise working with vulnerable groups in low-income neighborhoods in Kenya and is involved in the fish value chain as a board advisor to Rio-Fish, an aggregator in the Lake Victoria belt. In 2019, he served on the external
advisory board of the EU-funded Green to Grow, a revenue generation approach for sustainable consumption and production dissemination in Kenya and before then was a founding board member/chairman of United Way Kenya (2015-2019).
Bob graduated with a Bachelor of Education from the University of Nairobi.

A highly effective business leader with about 18 years’ corporate experience at board level and in general management, public policy, finance and auditing roles with multinational companies across manufacturing, auditing and oil & gas sectors.

Erastus worked for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa-Tanzania for almost 10 years in positions of increasing responsibility as acting Managing Director, Finance Director, Director for Public Affairs and Communications, General Manager-Zanzibar, Finance Manager and Company Secretary.

Starting off his career with one of the world’s big 4 audit firms, EY-Tanzania, Erastus acquired versatile exposure in different sectors, including banking, manufacturing and Non-Governmental Organizations. He also has good experience in the petroleum industry having worked for two multinational petroleum companies – Oryx Energies and Reliance International-Tanzania.

Erastus has successfully led private sector engagements within East Africa Community-EAC and Southern African Development Community-SADC. He was the first vice chairperson of the Governing Council of Confederation of Tanzania Industries, board committee member with East Africa Business Council and Tanzania Private Sector Foundation. As active member of the private sector in the East African region, his exceptional abilities to build alliances, partnerships and strategic value-based relationships has seen him crafting strategies for government relations, successfully leading vibrant public policy and regulatory engagements as well as building social
license to operate through community engagements.

Erastus holds Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Commerce degrees as well as post graduate diploma in Economic Diplomacy and post graduate certificate in Law. He is a member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators-UK and author of two books –
Poverty Within Not on The Skin (2021) and A Distant Perspective on The US and Obama Administration (2017).

Noah Zimba is a dynamic and strategic-thinker, leader, extension specialist and climate change champion with diverse experience in forestry, environmental and natural resource management, agribusiness, sustainable agriculture, systematic and ethno-botany, renewable energy, counseling, mentoring and leadership development. As an international expert in Herbarium premium curatorial techniques, he led the commercialization of natural products programme in Southern Africa that inspired Sub-Saharan Africa to
market-led value addition particularly among small holder producers.

A prolific writer with excellent communication, administration and operations skills, Noah possesses proficient teaching/facilitation skills and experience that employ Socratic and participatory tools. He has consulted for several organizations, including the Government of Zambia and UNDP and serve(d) on several national and continental Boards and Steering Committees focusing on natural resources and climate change portfolios.

He was one of the first elected observers on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board and is a member of Zambia’s Technical Committee on Climate Change, SADC Climate Change Coalition, NGO Council of Zambia, Policy Subcommittee of the Pan African Climate Justice
Alliance and the Sentinel Project.

He is also the Chair of the Board of City College of Management and Technical Studies Lusaka, Zambia as well as the continental Operations and Research Portfolio lead for the Leadership Development Initiative (LDi), one of Africa’s Noah holds an international graduate Diploma in Herbarium Techniques from Kew London, United Kingdom and a National Diploma from the Zambia College of Forestry. He also attended a certificate course in Making Markets Matter jointly organized by Cornell and Stellenbosch universities and a certificate course in Strategic Assessments in Zambia.

Kweku Attafuah-Wadee is a Ghanaian professional with over six years of experience in environmental consulting, specializing in circular economy and resource/waste management. Kweku is passionate about the prospects of collaborative, inter-regional resource management solutions to minimize waste generation, while simultaneously promoting socio-economic development and environmental health across sub-Saharan Africa. He has a track record of working with teams within the World Bank, UNCTAD, and Chatham House, providing research, policy advisory, and market analysis services for resource management projects relating to developing countries in Africa and South Asia.

Kweku is also the Director for Resource Transformation Ghana, a boutique environmental consultancy providing consultancy services to environmental sector stakeholders with sustainability-related interests in Africa.

He holds an MSc in Environmental Technology and a BA in Environmental Studies from Imperial College London and Vassar College, respectively, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Science at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry School.

Suite C12, Alpha Bay, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria | +234 803 978 0391 | hello@circularium-africa.org