The GEANCO Foundation
8556 S. Ashland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60620
Dr. Godwin Onyema
Chief Executive Officer
Afam Onyema
Chief Operating Officer
708-439-1462
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News
Chinua Achebe joins GEANCO as Honorary Chairman
Chinua Achebe serves as our honorary Chairman. Professor Achebe, generally regarded as one of the most important living African writers, is also considered one of the most original literary artists writing in the English language. His masterpiece, Things Fall Apart (1958), has sold eight million copies worldwide and has been translated into forty-five languages. In 2008, Oprah Winfrey named the book one of the five that she feels everyone must read at least once in their life.
Professor Achebe is currently the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University, an Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island.
Chinua has declined hundreds of requests to join other charities and foundations. However, he was so impressed by our team and plan that he felt compelled to become personally and officially involved in our efforts. We are honored and deligthed to have Chinua as an important leader of the GEANCO family!
GEANCO Director Emmanuel Egbogah appointed Special Adviser to President of Nigeria; Will Endow Burn Unit of Augustine Memorial Hospital
Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah currently serves as Special Adviser for Petroleum Affairs to the President of Nigeria. Dr. Egbogah is a renowned petroleum engineer with more than 35 years of diversified geological and petroleum engineering experience in Canada, the United States, the North Sea, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, and Africa.
He has served as Technical Adviser and Technology Custodian for Petronas, the national oil corporation of Malaysia, and as Enhanced Oil Recovery Adviser for Libya's National Oil Corporation. In his role as Special Adviser, Dr. Egbogah pushed for the comprehensive reformation and modernization of Nigeria's petroleum industry. Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil exporter, and Africa's largest.
Dr. Egbogah will endow the Burn Unit of Augustine Memorial Hospital. His experience watching burned oil workers die en route to hospitals in South Africa or Europe has convinced him of the need to provide specialized care for these victims in Nigeria.
Nigerian Businesswoman To Endow Cardiac Center of Augustine Memorial
Dr. Stella M. Okoli, Founder and CEO of Emzor Pharmaceuticals
(the largest indigenous pharmaceutical company in Nigeria) will endow the Cardiac Center of Augustine Memorial Hospital.
The
center will be named in memory of Dr. Okoli's late son, Chike M. Okoli,
and will eventually stand as the premier cardiac care facility in West Africa. Cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, after HIV/AIDS, and is the #1 killer of adults over 30.
Dr. Okoli served as a co-chair of the Foundation's November 25, 2006
benefit event in Lagos, Nigeria. In an innovative bit of fundraising,
her team of Nigerian executives and professionals was pitted against
another team led by the president of Diamond Bank Nigeria, Pascal Dozie. The two
teams competed in two "halves" of fundraising.
Click here to read
the speech Dr. Okoli gave to open the friendly but fiercely contested
fundraising competition.
Afam Onyema selected to attend Nigeria Leadership Initiative's Future Leaders Seminar
GEANCO COO Afam Onyema was nominated and selected as an Associate for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative's Future Leaders Seminar. In October 2010, Afam joined other highly motivated and accomplished young Nigerians between the ages of 25 - 35 years, from home and in the Diaspora, who are uniquely qualified to influence the future development of the Nigerian society through values-based leadership.
During an intense 3-day seminar in Lagos, Nigeria, Afam sharpened his leadership skills and reflected on his role, through GEANCO, as a future Nigerian leader. The thought-provoking interactions with his fellow associates and the seminar's leaders spurred Afam's commitment to contributing to transformative development in Nigeria.
Afam named an Emerging Young Leader
Afam was named to the New Leader Council’s 40 Under 40 national list of Emerging Leaders for 2009. The New Leaders Council is an organization that seeks out and trains the top tier of emerging young leaders and "political entrepreneurs."
The '09 list includes a US congressman, the state treasurer of Illinois, and a US assistant defense secretary.
GEANCO Directors Bernd and Green selected as "40 Under 40" Leaders
GEANCO Treasurer and Director Michael Green has been named to the Cincinnati Business Courier's 2009 Forty Under 40 class. GEANCO Director Jason Bernd has been recognized as one of Charlotte's talented up-and-comers under the age of 40 by the Charlotte Business Journal.
We congratulate Michael and Jason for being named to these groups of impressive young professionals and leaders who are making significant impacts in their communities!