**Dr Christopher Kolade
Christopher Kolade’s career has spanned the following fields:
· Education: as Education Officer in Western Nigeria in 1955, first teaching at Government College, Ughelli, and then serving as the pioneer of educational broadcasting until 1960.
· Broadcasting, first as Controller, Western Region (1960), and then as Director of Programmes, both on TV and Radio, of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC. He served as Director-General of the Corporation from 1972 to 1977.
· Business – as a Director on the Board of Cadbury Nigeria from 1978. He became chief executive of the company in 1984, and chairman of the Board in 1993, retiring from the Board in February, 2002.
· Diplomacy In March, 2002, he was appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the Court of St. James in the UK, a position from which he retired in July 2007.
· Academia: Between 1995 and 2002, he was on the faculty of the Lagos Business School as Lecturer in Corporate Governance, Leadership and Human Resource Management. On leaving the diplomatic post in the UK, he returned to the Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic (formerly Pan-African) University, as Senior Fellow with teaching and research interest in Corporate Governance and Leadership. In February 2009, he was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University, a position from which he retired in February 2015.
He has served as Chairman, Board of Trustees, of Caleb University, Imota,Lagos, since 2006.
Christopher Kolade has, for many years, led initiatives in the promotion of ethical and development issues concerning the nation of Nigeria. In this connection, he held the chairmanship of the Convention on Business Integrity from 1997 to 2014, and is the Founding and current Patron of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative. In both positions he has been active in stimulating and coordinating the talent and efforts of younger Nigerians who are promoting positive national development and working to make a value-adding difference in the battle against corrupt practices in the nation. In 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme of the Federal Government, where he served for two years.
Christopher Kolade heads the ministry – Managing Business for Christ (MBFC) – and also participates in the activities of Apostles in the Market Place (AiMP), both of which strive to assist business men and women to manage their enterprises in accordance with the principles of Christianity. He is a Lay Canon (Emeritus) of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Guildford, UK, and also shares the Word in churches.
He holds Fellowship of :
· The Institute of Directors,
· the Society of Nigerian Broadcasters,
· the Society for Corporate Governance, Nigeria, (of which he was pioneer President), and
· the Institute of Personnel Management Nigeria, where he served as President and Chairman of Council from 1988 to 1993.
· He is also a Companion of the Nigerian Institute of Management, of which he was President from 1985 to 1988.
In 1981, Christopher Kolade was awarded the Medal of St. Augustine by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd. Dr. Robert Runcie. Also in the year 2000, he was awarded the Nigerian national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (C.O.N.)
Christopher Kolade is the Founder of the Christopher Kolade Foundation (CKF), a charity organization that assists in capacity development in the fields of education and Christian religion.
Christopher is married to Beatrice, and they have two daughters and three grandchildren.
