As we enter the ember months we celebrate a woman whose passion for excellence and human capacity development is infectious. This is why our Woman of the Month, September 2019 is no other than Ema Clark.
Ema is a talent engagement, organisational effectiveness and leadership development consultant who gained her specialisation from London School of Economics and Political Sciences, where she studied an MSc in human resources and organisations as a Chevening scholar. She is also a UCL IOE qualified teacher of English to speakers of other languages and a lawyer who graduated from the Nigerian Law School and the Obafemi Awolowo University.
She began her career as a banker working at different stages of her life in various banks including FSB International Bank(now Fidelity Bank), Zenith Bank, Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank) and Bond Bank (now Polaris Bank) in the legal, marketing, credit and relationship management divisions. Though she thoroughly enjoyed her time as a banker, where she learnt the art of engagement and managing complex transactions, she soon realised after being in the industry for a decade, her true passion lay elsewhere. So, after she attained management level in the banking sector, she exited the industry and entered the often difficult but quite exciting world of entrepreneurship by setting up her own soft skills training company.
For over a decade, she spent time upskilling more than 2000 potential African leaders of various organisations including executive managers, mid-career professionals and entry-level staff of various oil and gas, ICT, financial and government institutions.
She is currently very focused on building a start-up called Capacity Miners that will not only use technology to help Africa’s expanding professional class to build skills, but will also use this tool to link local talents to the region’s leading companies. In her words, “I am optimistic about Africa’s potential as I truly believe the continent is indeed the next frontier for innovation and investment. I am also convinced, despite the current negativism surrounding our country, that Nigeria will continue to be the launchpad for the newest economic revolution that will come from Africa.”
In her spare time, she loves to coach potential leaders, write, design apparel and listen to music; she is also a voracious reader and avid fan of the Nigerian movie industry.