Meet the 5 Powerful Women on Cadbury Nigeria’s Female-Dominated Board
Five of the seven members of Cadbury Nigeria’s board of directors are women.
They are Folake Ogundipe, interim managing director; Ibukun Awosika and Sree Patel, non-executive directors; and Kofo Akinkugbe and Olubunmi Lawson, independent non-executive directors.
On Tuesday, the company announced the appointment of Patel to the board with effect from 26 January 2026.
Sree Patel
Patel is the vice president and chief counsel, Asia Middle East and Africa (AMEA) Region in Mondelez International, a director on the board of Mondelez India, a member of the Mondelez AMEA Region Leadership Team, as well as a member of the Mondelez Global Legal Leadership Team.
She has broad business, legal and public affairs experience across foods, pharmaceutical and FMCG industries, with extensive cross functional expertise in business strategy and advisory, corporate law, M&A, divestment and acquisition of business, closure of establishments, compliance under FCPA & UK Anti Bribery Act, indirect tax, licensing, real estate monetisation, litigation and dispute resolution.
Prior to Mondelez, Patel was with GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited (GSK), part of the GlaxoSmithKline plc group of companies, where she held positions of increasing responsibility. Her last role in GSK was Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, where her responsibilities included Business Advisory, Litigation, Pharmaceutical regulations, Policy and issues on patents, Drug Pricing regulations, Indirect Tax issues, Intellectual Property, Company Secretariat and acquisition or divestment of business and property. Sree has previously worked with the Tata Group of companies.
She currently serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL), a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company and one of India’s leading automobile manufacturers. She also serves on the Nomination & Remuneration Committee of the HMIL Board (Chair), its Audit Committee (Member) and its Risk Committee (member). She has just stepped off the Board of Greaves Cotton Ltd., a diversified, multi-product, multi-fuel, multi-location engineering company listed on the stock exchange following completion of the maximum allowable two terms as an Independent Director.
Folake Ogundipe
Ogundipe joined Cadbury Nigeria in September, was appointed as executive director (finance) in October and interim managing director in November.
She is a senior finance leader and board member with over two decades of experience driving business transformation, delivering sustained shareholder value and fostering high-performance cultures.
Prior to joining Cadbury, she held senior leadership positions across diverse sectors, including Executive Director, Finance at Unilever Nigeria Plc, CFO for PES Group (Energy Services Company), Financial Controller at Nigerdock Nigeria Ltd, and various roles at Subsea7 S.A UK, Phillips Consulting Ltd, and Investment Banking & Trust Company (IBTC) Limited.
Ibukun Awosika
Awosika is an African entrepreneur, author, international leader, and global culture shaper. She is the Chairman and Founder of The Chair Centre Group, a leading furniture and security systems provider in Nigeria.
She serves as Chairman or Board member on various Corporate and non-profit boards around the world, cutting across Education (IESE Business School, Imperial Gate Schools, Pan Atlantic University), Energy (D-Light Inc.), IT (Digital Jewels Limited), Retail (House of Tara International), Financial Services (Binance, Alitheia IDF Fund LP, Nigeria Advisory Board for Impact Investing), Corporate Governance (Convention on Business Integrity), Advocacy (Women in Management, Business and Public Service, IFVI International Foundation for Valuing Impacts).
She was recently appointed to the UK G7 Impact Taskforce and also the Vice Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing. She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and served on the pioneer board of the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Awosika was the first female chairperson of Nigeria’s oldest bank First Bank (2016 – 2021)
Kofo Akinkugbe
Akinkugbe is founder and group managing manager of SecureID Nigeria, a market leader in smart card technology and digital security.
She started her career in the banking industry, working with International Merchant Bank Plc and Chartered Bank Limited. She remained in the financial sector for over 12 years until 1997 when she left to start Interface Technologies, a security management and biometrics technologies company. With a mathematics major, and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, she successfully ran Interface Technologies Ltd. (ITL) for nine years, before establishing SecureID Nigeria, an offshoot from a small department in Interface Technologies and the first VISA certified plant in sub-Saharan Africa.
Olubunmi Lawson
Lawson is the chief executive officer and managing director of Edfin Microfinance Bank. She was the pioneer MD/CEO of ACCION Microfinance Bank Limited. She nurtured the bank from infancy to a leading national microfinance bank.
A former executive director at FATE Foundation Ltd/Gte, and co-founder and executive director at VLA Lawrence & Associates, she has over 29 years’ professional experience in finance, insurance, marketing, auditing and banking. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the IESE Business School, University of Navarra and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.
She sits on boards of various organisations including CIBN Press, Advisory Boards of Bridge International Academies, Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), MaTontine Inc. New York, and Simply Exponential Consult Limited.
