Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu is the Director of Partnerships and Evaluation at The Tony Elumelu Foundation. In this role, she is charged with forging local and international strategic partnerships to scale the $100m TEF Entrepreneurship Programme across Africa with development Organizations, Development Finance Institutions and working with the Public & Private Sector to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship in Africa.

Ifeyinwa is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation and is a firm proponent of the principle that the empowerment of African entrepreneurs is the sole route to poverty alleviation on the continent.

Ifeyinwa holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Wales, and is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and holds a post graduate degree in Business and Executive Coaching from the Integral Africa Institute, Cape Town. She started her career in 2000 as a Legal Practitioner at Chief Rotimi Williams Chambers, and moved on to become the Company Secretary at Romi Oil and Gas ltd in 2003. In 2006, she co-Founded Sleek Nigeria and was the Managing Director until she relocated to Cape Town in 2014. She founded and grew this medium scale business from a completely unknown brand, to one of the top cosmetics companies in Nigeria, with an annual turnover of N400million within the first three years of operation.