Mr. Bede-Nerus Ekezie joined IoD Centre for Corporate Governance as the Head of Programmes and Membership in 2016 and in 2020 he was appointed the Ag. Executive Director. Prior to joining the Centre, Mr Ekezie served as the Director of Programmes, Membership and Public Relations at the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, NASME from 2006 to 2016. He also had a decade of experience as an Investment Banker with the defunct Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (now, Bank of Industry) where he played significant roles across key departmental lines.

Mr. Ekezie was at a time, a senior partner at Benek Integrated Consultants, a legally registered Management and Capacity Development Consulting Firm with focus on MSMEs Financial Advisory, Capital Formation, Enterprise Development, Market Solutions and Capacity Development and Board Evaluation. In that capacity, Mr Ekezie amongst others, developed an international standard training curricular for Tony Elumelu Foundation; a flagship entrepreneurship programme of TEF deployed across Africa for the purpose of identifying over a period of 10 (ten) years, 10,000 African Start-ups and entrepreneurs with ideas that have the potential to succeed.

Mr. Ekezie is a Corporate Governance and Leadership coach, a UNIDO certified Lead Auditor on ISO 9001:2015 and an IFC Certified Board Evaluator with over 20 years’ experience in consulting, financial services and MSMEs development space. He brings with him extensive leadership skills, programme management, learning & development design and delivery, strategy, organisational development, stakeholder and innovation management.

Ekezie is a fellow of the Institute of Professional Industrialist and Management Development, (FIMD), Fellow of Institute of Management Consultants, (FIMC), Fellow of the Institute of Management Specialist (FIMS, UK) and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM). He holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the University of Lagos and an MBA in Managerial Finance from Lagos State University. He has attended many professional certificate courses at various local and international capacity building programmes.  He is currently the Ag. Chief Executive Officer.