By Uche Amunike
The United States President, Joe Biden, has appointed two Nigerians who were among the 12 members of the President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States, Osagie Imasogie and Chinenye Joy Ogwumike, as Special Advisers.
Information about their appointment was made known through a statement released by the State House on Wednesday. Other members of the council include Silvester Scott Beaman who will chair the council, Mimi E. Alemayehou, Rosalind Brewer, Viola Davis, Helene D. Gayle, Patrick Hubert Gaspard, C.D. Glin, Osagie Imasogie, Almaz Negash, Chinenye Joy Ogwumike, Ham K. Serunjogi, and Kevin Young. They’re expected to serve from 2023 to 2025.
The statement explained that the council was established with the objective of enhancing dialogue between the United States officials and the African diaspora. These members were carefully selected from people who have distinguished themselves in business, sports, government, academia, creative industries, faith-based activities and social work.
The statements partly read: ‘They will provide invaluable guidance to reinforce cultural, social, political, and economic ties between the U.S. and Africa, and promote trade, investment, and educational exchanges between the United States and Africa.’
Osagie Imasogie’s profile: He is the Chairman of the Investment Bank and SEC/FINRA registered Broker-Dealer, Quoin Capital and Quoin Advisors. He is also a co-founder of PIPV Capital, a private equity firm that is based on the life sciences vertical and has invested over $1 billion into that industry. But before that, he established GlaxoSmithKline Ventures and was its founding Vice President. He has also held senior commercial and R&D positions within pharmaceutical companies like GSK, Smithkline Beacham and Dupont Merck. Apart from being a practicing attorney with leading U.S. law firm, Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis, Osagie Imasogie was also a Price Waterhouse Corporate Finance Partner who is into serial entrepreneurship and investment. He has served on the board of a number of financial institutions like FS-KKR Capital Corps and Haverford Trust, which manages over $28 billion. He’s an Adviser to Brown Advisory, an organization that manages in excess of $140 billion. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and also, a member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center.
The newly appointed Osagie Imasogie is also a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Trustee and Chairman of the board of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he is also an Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property. He also holds LLM degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and is currently a member of the New York State Bar, admitted to practice in other jurisdictions.
On her part, Chinenye Joy Ogwumike is a 2-time WNBA All-star for the Los Angeles Sparks. She is also a full time multi-platform ESPN host and NBA analyst. Every day, she stars on ESPN on ESPN’s NBA Today and NBA Countdown. She also stars on the court as a forward for the Sparks. She’s a Nigerian-American born in Cypress, Texas. A graduate of Stanford University, with an International Relations degree under the mentorship of Dr. Condoleezza Rice, she’s the first overall pick in the 2014 WNBA draft.
She has earned multiple honors for her academic success, including being named the 2014 Capital One Academic All-American of the Year and the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She led Stanford to three Final Fours, while distinguishing herself in different feats. In 2014, she was WNBA Rookie of the Year and a two-time WNBA All Star in 2014 and 2018. She was the Vice President of the WNBA Players Association from 2018 to 2022, helping negotiate the ground breaking, 2020 collective bargaining agreement.
She was the first black woman to host a national daily sports-talk radio show in August 2020. She is also a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and holds the title of Executive Producer, producing an ESPN Films documentary, ‘144’, on the 2020 WNBA season. She became a full-time, multi-platform ESPN NBA analyst in 2018, making her one of the youngest national sports studio analysts and one of the only full-time professional athletes to presently hold the regular nationals sports media position. She has travelled numerous times to Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa with NBA Africa and other non-profits, to help launch youth empowerment and education initiatives, using basketball as a tool for development.
