Olutope Olatilewa (Lady Topsie) –Global Business Strategist | AfCFTA Trade Advocate | Executive Leadership Facilitator | Founder, Business Without Boundaries
Vital Voices Fellow | Ashoka Changemakers Scholar | Equal in Tech Award — Leadership in SME | WeForGood — 100 African Women Creating a Better Africa.
I am Lady Topsie — a global business strategist, AfCFTA trade advocate, executive leadership facilitator, and the founder of Business Without Boundaries.
I have worked with entrepreneurs in all 54 African countries for more than twenty years, working with executives, and businesses to assist them in their strategies to cross borders and excel at the executive leadership level.
My work is at the nexus of African economic development, cross-border trade, executive leadership transformation, and the practical application of AfCFTA as a real business tool for African businesses operating in today’s market.
Business Without Boundaries was born out of one conviction: that geography, gender, and circumstance should never define the boundaries of anyone’s ambition.
Everything that I do stems from this singular conviction.
The executive leadership retreats that I facilitate across Africa and internationally.
The AfCFTA Business Readiness Training that has helped hundreds of business leaders across Africa and beyond to understand and apply the most important trade agreement on the continent. The Strategic Planning Masterclasses that enable executive leaders to acquire thinking tools for developing strategies that work in the real world. Executive Coaching for achieving clarity and purpose among senior leaders who need it to excel at their best. Consulting and Advisory services for organizations looking for ways to access new markets in Africa and grow without costly trial and error.
I am one of the few practitioners on this continent who championed AfCFTA business education before it became a mainstream boardroom conversation, training entrepreneurs, executives, women leaders, and young professionals not only on what AfCFTA is but, more importantly, how they can use it to grow businesses that compete at a continental and global level.
I have been recognised by the Vital Voices Fellowship, Ashoka Changemakers, the Mastercard Foundation, the Equal in Tech Awards for Leadership in SME, and WeForGood Network as one of 100 African Women Creating a Better Africa. I am also the founder of the African ChangeMakers Initiative, a Pan-African social impact movement for youth, women, and girls across 54 countries on the continent, and Africa Volunteering Week, a continental volunteering and community development movement.
I am available globally for keynote speaking, executive leadership retreats, AfCFTA business advisory and consulting, executive coaching, corporate training, and brand and market representation partnerships in African markets.
Connect With Me:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/iamtopsie
Facebook: https://facebook.com/iamtopsie
Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamtopsie
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@iamtopsie
X: https://x.com/@iamtopsie
Global Advisory Network.
Bert Evers – Nertherland
Bert Evers is currently appointed as Special Advisor to the Board of Directors of Gateway Health Institute. Bert Evers is a results-focused, can-do leader committed to tackling complex assignments and project implementations. He owes his success to his remarkable organizational talents, his persistence, and his ability to lead and motivate people of the most diverse kind. His exceptional empathy, rapid and incisive grasp of situations, networked thinking, social skills, personal engagement, and goals-aligned implementations are a guarantee of success for any potential client. He is the Founder/Managing Partner of Expect More International – with a primary goal to promote and anchor skills development nationally, and internationally, to initiate that skills development (education for all) is rated as a top priority and to ensure that each learner gets the opportunity and the necessary skills to compete in the local or even global market – equal opportunities for all. He is also the Founder/CEO of Evers Xcellence Gmbh, CH-Ebikon. He is a business mentor at The Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Ruka Sanusi – Ghana
Ruka graduated cum laude with a master’s in Business Administration and is the founder of Alldens Lane, a business strategy consulting firm which has a unique focus on providing executive and business coaching to female entrepreneurs in Africa’s small and growing business sector. Through Alldens Lane, Ruka provides women in business with business direction, balanced support and thought provoking business performance and growth analytics, from which they can grow and transform their businesses – as well as their lives. Prior to founding Alldens Lane in 2012, Ruka served as part of the senior management team at PwC Ghana and PwC Nigeria for over a decade. Prior to that, she worked in the UK with the global corporation, Crown Agents, as part of their international consulting team serving clients in Africa and the Caribbean.
Ruka has advised governments, public sector organizations and private corporations on international projects and assignments in 16 sub-Saharan African countries. She has lived in the UK, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria. A skillful professional with 20 years of international consulting experience, Ruka possesses extensive knowledge of matters pertinent to business management, strategy development and organizational transformation.
Shareefa Fadhel – Qatar
Shareefa Fadhel is an accomplished entrepreneur and visionary with a history of pioneering new programs and opportunities among women in Qatar and the GCC. She is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of the nonprofit, Roudha Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (RC). Shareefa is the driving force behind RC successes, from a research idea to a fully fledge center touching the lives of over 6,000 women in Qatar. Shareefa was nominated by Arabian Business as one of the “Top 100 Powerful Arab Women” for 2014. She is also on the Steering Committee of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women Mentoring Program and Vital Voices -VVLead Fellow, as one of the top 100 women leaders of this generation. Shareefa is an enthusiastic and dedicated professional with passion for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and SME businesses, as well as having extensive telecom experience in sales, marketing management and customer care acquired from a diverse and rewarding career. She holds an MBA in Management & Marketing Strategies and a Diploma in Corporate Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. Shareefa is a motivational leader who is adept at managing, motivating and developing successful and productive teams to ensure full delivery of company objectives. She works directly with organizations advocate about women and women’s economic development as well as cutting-edge companies providing consulting, marketing and business development for their women product groups. She also acts as a consultant for women in the retail sector and has initiated the Johara Initiative in Vodafone Qatar to help women obtain skills to become entrepreneurs by selling Vodafone products from home to their surrounding network.
Dr. Tunde Oseni – Nigeria
Dr Tunde Oseni is an International Scholar and Management Consultant with education and experience spanning Universities in Ibadan (first class honours), Oxford, Exeter and New York. Having taught and carried out research for close to 10 years in Comparative Politics and Corporate Governance in Nigeria and UK, Dr Oseni has consulted for several organizations and institutions including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Osun State Government, Lagos State Government, Oyo State Local Government Service Commission, Global Integrity (Washington), and Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF/IREX), Washington, among others. He is the CEO, Upward BAO Consulting, Founder, Youth Focus Initiative, Lagos and currently the Head, Department of Politics & International Relations, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria.
ElsaMarie D’Silva – India
ElsaMarie D’Silva is currently the Managing Director and co-founder of Red Dot Foundation (Safecity) which is a platform that crowdsources personal experiences of sexual violence and abuse in public spaces. Since Safecity started in Dec 2012, it has become the largest crowd map on the issue in India, Kenya, Cameroon and Nepal. She is a fellow with Aspen New Voices and Vital Voices. Prior to Safecity, she was in the aviation industry for 20 years where she worked with Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines. Her last portfolio was Vice President Network Planning & Charters where she oversaw the planning and implementation of 500 daily flights at Kingfisher Airlines. She has written articles that have appeared in CNN, Huffington Post and the WIP. She has spoken about her work at the Aspen Ideas Festival and at TEDx MidAtlantic.
