Celebrating Ndi-Igbo

Ifeyinwa Madu Egwaoje has committed her life to working to reducing maternal mortality through community work in Nigeria. At age 14, she went through a three year training program with the Girls’ Power Initiative, where she developed her expertise as an adolescent reproductive health and gender development trainer. Ifeyinwa became a facilitator with the organization training young girls to become visible and empowered members of their communities. She was involved in the implementation of Family Life HIV/AIDS Education curriculum in Edo State using the Learning About Living project. Her desire to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS has made her a trainer and led her to work as the Monitoring and Evaluation officer for a USAID funded project on HIV/AIDS prevention. As part of her national youth service in Nigeria, Ifeyinwa worked as a research assistant with Society For Family Health, providing evidence to malaria, HIV/AIDS and maternal health programs. In 2010, she became one of a prestig...

Chineze Anyaene, 26, is the Award-winning director of IJE. She was also the first student film producer in the history of the New York Film Academy to shoot a feature film on 35mm. The film "Ije: The Journey" chronicles the story of a young woman from rural Nigeria who immigrates to the rocket-paced, star-crazed world of Los Angeles. And while the personal stories of the director of that film, Chineze Anyaene, and her protagonist are not exactly identical -- the latter ends up on trial for the murder of three men -- there are distinct similarities between the two women who changed their addresses and perspectives from West Africa to the American West. Chineze recently featured in Levi's action series ‘ Shape of what’s to come ' - a collection of interviews featuring young women who have contributed positively to the arts and various other fields.

Uchechukwu Eberechukwu "Uche" Nwaneri is an American football player who plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Uche was born in Dallas, Texas on March 20, 1984. He played Guard for Purdue University after graduating from Naaman Forest High School. He was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 149th Overall pick in the 5th round of the 2007 NFL Draft.

Hugh Njemanze is the Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at ArcSight. He leads product development, information technology deployment, and product research at the firm. He has strong recent enterprise software experience from 18 years of relevant responsibilities. ArcSight headquarters are located in Cupertino, California, USA, with sales offices around the globe including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Latin America, Japan and India. In September 2010, HP (Hewlett Packard) announced it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire ArcSight for $43.50 per share, or approximately $1.5 billion. On October 22, 2010, HP announced it had completed its acquisition of ArcSight Mr. Njemanze is also an Advisor at Silicon Valley Internet Capital. He worked as the Chief Technology Officer at Verity, where he led product development. Mr. Njemanze was also employed at Apple in Software Engineering, where he was one of th...

Chuk Iwuji was born in Nigeria in 1975. When he was ten his parents began working for the United Nations Organization and moved to Ethiopia, sending their son to a boarding school in England. He got in to Yale University to read Economics but was interested in acting and joined the university's drama society. Whilst he was appearing in their production of 'Murder in the Cathedral' he was offered an acting scholarship. He went to a drama school in Wisconsin, graduating in the summer of 2000 and moved back to the United Kingdom, successfully auditioning for the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he has joined the ever-growing number of black actors, including David Oyelowo and Adrian Lester, who have played leading roles with no reference to their colour. Olivier Award winner Chuk Iwuji is also part of the cast of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project. Richard III. He plays the role of Buckingham in a play spearheaded by Kevin Spacey. The last time Mendes and Spacey paired up they bot...

Lonzo Nzekwe is the producer, director and writer of award-winning movie, 'Anchor Baby' ‘Anchor Baby’ tells the story of Joyce (played by Omoni Oboli) and Paul Unanga (played by Sam Sarpong), a married illegal immigrant couple living in the US; they have been ordered by the US immigration to leave the country by voluntary departure. They agree to leave; but only after Joyce who is 5months pregnant delivers her baby inside the US. This will guarantee automatic citizenship for their child. Ignoring the deportation order, the couple goes into hiding. Paul was later caught and deported while Joyce stayed back to struggle on her own to achieve their dream. ‘Anchor Baby’ has won international awards including the Best Film award at the 2010 Harlem International Film Festival and has been officially accepted to screen at the ‘Fans of Film’ film festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Lonzo Nzekwe was born in Enugu State; but is a native of Abia State, Nigeria. In 1997...

Oscar Onyema is the chief executive officer of The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Onyema holds a B.Sc Computer Engineering degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and an MBA, Finance and Investments, Ziklin School of Business, Baruch College, New York. Oscar Onyema served as Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President of American Stock Exchange LLC. Mr. Onyema serves as a primary liaison among various Amex operating divisions, the trading floor community, and external constituents. In addition, he is responsible for strategy and competitive analysis, Membership and Registration Department and Market Data Services Department. Mr. Onyema has been instrumental in Amex's preparation for Regulation NMS. Mr. Onyema joined the Amex in January 2001, and has served in various positions, most recently as Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. Before joining the Amex, Mr. Onyema worked at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) as Senior Analyst f...