Chuck received a B.A. in Psychology, with a focus in Organizations and Economicsfrom Harvard University and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina, with a distinction in Leadership.
Chuck has accumulated a wealth of experience throughout his professional career excelling in various positions and responsibilities. He is an expert consultant in strategy, operations, and marketing. His market analyses have been featured in:
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Forbes.com “The Fastest Growing Industries in the Last Year”
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Inc.com features:
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“Why Landlord Profits Are Through the Roof”
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§ “The Best Performing Industries in the US”
§ “Inside the US Construction Boom”
§ “Private Utilities Could Short-Circuit Despite Growth”
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Huffington Post “Guess Which Industries are Growing the Fastest”
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International Business Times “Staples Inc and Office Depot May Be Merging”
Nwokocha is the current President and Executive Board Member/Director of Ngwa Union of North Carolina, and independent affiliate chapter of Ngwa National Association USA (NNAUSA) based in Raleigh
Sam Hart is a Lawyer with specialization in Environmental Law. He is also a trained Mentor, Marketer and Communicator. He has had extensive experience in the public sector at Federal and State levels working in the past 17 years as aide to 3 successive Governors of Abia State serving at different times as Speechwriter, Chief Press Secretary and Director of Protocol.
He also served for 3 years as the Group Editor of an International Magazine with headquarters in London with focus on outstanding African leaders; A position that afforded him the opportunity to interview several African Presidents and leaders in business, development work and the academia while serving as host/anchor/moderator at various international development fora held by the Magazine in cities around the world.
He is currently the Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State on Communications/Speechwriter as well as the Director-General of the Abia State Marketing and Quality Marketing. In his current role, he picked up the desire of his Principal to promote advocacy for locally made goods and drove the conversation for #MadeInAba. The project has led to over N5B in direct orders coming into Aba, Abia State in the past 5 years and the embrace of the conversation by the Federal Government of Nigeria which has through policies and visits, recognised Aba at the highest level as a critical component to the strengthening of Nigeria's economy.
Sam has attended a number of self-development training programmes including at the Lagos Business School, Lagos, African Leadership Centre, Paris, New York Mentoring Institute, New York, Centre for Leadership Development, Dubai, Bloxhub Summer School, Copenhagen, ICCC Dublin, Malmo University, Sweden and several other such trainings in different cities around the world.
Widely travelled, Sam is married to Chika, a Health Specialist and School Proprietress and together, they have 4 children.
He is working to build a Nigeria where hardworking entrepreneurs can find opportunities to grow their businesses.
Dr. Dennis Ikpe was a Presidential Scholar at the University of Michigan, researching data-driven models for pricing credit risky assets and the use of Webwork in designing mathematics curriculum.
He is a professor in the Department of Probability and Statistics and the coordinator, African Engagement in Data Science for the College of Natural Sciences at Michigan State University.
He is also a research associate at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cape Town, South Africa.
He is a recipient of the prestigious Thuthuka grant (2019-2021) by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
Dr. Ikpe taught several courses in the Mathematical sciences department at the University of South Africa, including Numerical Analysis, Stochastic Analysis, Optimal Control, and Financial Risk Management and served as a advisor to undergraduate students, masters and Ph.D. students in the areas of Financial Mathematics and Risk Management.
Dr. Ikpe worked as a quantitative analyst for the Stanbic IBTC Bank in Lagos, Nigeria. He was the founding director of Maths Edge, a flagship project at the University of South Africa aimed at demystifying and creating awareness on the real-life applications of Mathematics to young students.
Dr. Ikpe earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town, a BSc. Honors in Advanced Mathematics of Finance from University of Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg South Africa, and a certificate in Technologies and Design of Online Instructional Material from the University of Maryland.
Dr Ikpe is the current president of Ngwa National Association, Detroit Chapter (NNAD). He is an active member of NNAUSA council.
He is the chair of the Diaspora Consortium, focusing on providing voluntary teaching and learning assistantships for the benefits of underprivileged children from all public schools in Abia State, Nigeria.
Chinweike Ukomadu MD, PhD. Executive Director and Therapeutic Area Head, Hepatology. Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA
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Dr. Chinweike Ukomadu was born in Ovom in Abia State, Nigeria. He came to the US at the age of 18 years for college education. He attended Lehman College of the City University of New York, graduating with a BS (summa cum laude) in Chemistry. Following Lehman, he attended Yale School of Medicine, graduating with joint MD and PhD degrees. His residency training was in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). He was one of two physicians from his graduating class to be selected as chief medical resident, a job that involved the supervision and training of 140 resident physicians. Dr Ukomadu stayed on at BWH and HMS and specialized in gastroenterology and hepatology.
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Following his training, Dr Ukomadu joined the faculty of BWH and HMS where he was an independent investigator and the head of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded laboratory that studied the molecular mechanisms of liver regeneration. In addition to his research, he saw patients in the liver clinic, taught fellows, residents and students and directed the gastroenterology course for second year medical students at HMS. He was also the director of the STARS (summer training in academic research and scholarship), an NIH funded program that provided research opportunities for minority populations under-represented in medicine. After 20 years at BWH and HMS, Dr Ukomadu was recruited to Novartis Institutes For BioMedical Research (NIBR), the research arm of a multi-national pharmaceutical company. He is currently an Executive Director and the Therapeutic Area Head for Hepatology at NIBR.
Dr. Ihechi C. Alilionwu is a Doctor of Nursing Practice with a focus in Advanced Public Health Nursing and emphasis on Leadership to Enhance Population Health Outcomes. Dr. Alilionwu received her DNP from Rush University, a BSN from Lakeview College of Nursing, and a BS in Community Health Education from U of I. She was born and raised in Mission Hill Umuahia, Abia State and currently resides in Houston, Tx. Dr. Alilionwu’s passion to serve stems from her experiences as a child who grew up in an environment that was ill equipped to medically manage its communities (Nigeria). Dr. Alilionwu is a public health change agent and community advocate who is tremendously passionate about arming communities with evidenced-based and culturally competent health education and resources needed to thrive. In her professional journey thus far, she has served her communities in the states and beyond the diaspora as a dynamic leader. Dr. Alilionwu has also had the opportunity to impact at large by developing and implementing evidence-based and culturally tailored health promotion projects. She has also led various quality improvement projects in the organizations that she has been part of thus far.
Dr. Alilionwu is proudly Igbo. She has been serving the Igbo community since 2006 in the capacities of youth leader, mentor and professional development coordinator, founder, and President of Ndi Egwu. Dr. Alilionwu’s passion for serving her community is unmatched. Her future goals consist of collaborating with like-minded individuals to strengthen Nigeria’s public health system and to create a reliable healthcare system for our future generations.
Chiemela Ogbonna was born in Washington, DC. He is an IT professional with experience in database administration, cybersecurity and operations support. He currently works at ManTech International Corporation. His roles are comprised of collaborating with other IT professionals to support TSA applications through database maintenance, system vulnerability tracking and prevention, and system support. He currently holds certifications in Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH) and Scrum Master Alliance. His hobbies include creative outlets including coding, piano, painting, drawing, graphic design, and digital art.