A new chairman has been appointed by the board of Punch Nigeria Limited, publishers of Punch Newspapers. This follows the death of Mr. Gbadebowale Aboderin, its former chairman on May 30, 2018. The new chairman is Mrs Angela Olufunmilayo Emuwa (nee Aboderin). The board also approved the appointment of Mrs Valerie Omowunmi Tunde-Obe (nee Aboderin) as a non-executive director. Both are daughters of the founding chairman of the company, the late Chief Olu Aboderin, who died in a London hospital in 1984.
Mrs Emuwa was until her appointment a non-executive director in the company. She joined the board in 1994. She worked as advert manager and as well as corporate affairs manager at the Newswatch Communications Limited, and later as Advertising Sales Director at Africa Today and Head of Operations at News Africa. The former Chairperson, Golden Hearts Touching Lives Initiative, a non-governmental organisation is also President of Autism Parents Association International, an NGO for Nigerian parents with autistic children.
A holder of postgraduate diploma in business administration and another in Communications Advertising and Marketing (CAM), the new chief executive also has an MBA. Her appointment takes effect from Tuesday June 26, 2018. So is Obe’s appointment to the board.
Obe, a graduate of Philosophy from the University of Lagos worked as a Senior Manager, Copywriting at LTC/JWT Advertising before joining her husband Tunde Obe to found KOPYKATS & Associates, a scriptwriting, music production and marketing company. The couple also formed the entertainment group known as T.W.O , (pronounced as two) from their initials, Tunde and Wumi Obe. Prior to her appointment , she had been director at Punch Commercial Printing.