Somachi Chris-Asoluka

Somachi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries. Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Somachi served as Director of Partnerships and Communications for the Foundation.

Under her leadership, the Foundation is increasingly sharing its unique ability to identify, train, mentor, and fund young entrepreneurs across Africa, scaled through partnerships with global institutions including the EU, UNDP, ICRC, US Government via the USADF, OACPS, AFD, DEG, GIZ, AfDB, and Google. She is a Board Director of WINGS, a global network of over 190 philanthropy development and support organizations in more than 50 countries, committed to ensuring philanthropy reaches its fullest potential as a catalyst for social progress. She also serves as Treasurer and Chairperson of the Finance Board Committee of WINGS. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Michigan State University Alliance for African Partnership. She is also a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon (National Economics Honor Society, USA). She is the Co-Chair of the UNICEF Generation Unlimited Nigeria (GenU 9JA) Steering Committee and a member/advisor of the IGNITE Global Steering Committee, a consortium funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and supported by the International Rescue Committee (IRC).She was appointed to the Nigerian Presidential High-Level Advisory Council on Support to Women and Girls by His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary's College of California with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a minor in Mathematics, and received the Adam Smith Award, given to the highest performing graduating student in Economics.