ROLAKE AKINKUGBE-FILANI

Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani is an award-winning and versatile C-level executive, whose unique blend of experience in energy, infrastructure and finance services sets her apart as one of Africa’s leading female business voices on global media platforms. As a corporate changemaker, with hands-on operational experience of the African continent, in January 2024, she started as GM & Group Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Development at Zenith Bank Plc managing critical relationships with institutional investors, asset managers, capital markets regulators as well as leading the geographic expansion of the bank across African and international markets. She is a highly-sought after financial, business and capital markets analyst on media platforms like CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC and CNN and has published scores of articles on African energy, infrastructure, and markets. 

She currently anchors a critically-acclaimed weekend business show – BusinessWeek – on pan-African news channel Arise News, recently covering energy, trade, economics, and investment themes for the channel at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos. Rolake is known for her superb and engaging analysis and can expertly distil complex business, finance, and economic topics to a wide variety of audiences. Prior to her current corporate role, she was Chief Commercial Officer & Director of leading pan-African infrastructure developer, Mixta Africa (ARM Group). 

She was also the Senior Advisor to IFU, the Danish Investment Fund and sat on the global advisory board of Canadian Private Equity firm, Stonechair Capital advising on its renewables and gas sector Energy Africa fund. From 2014 – 2019 she was head of energy for FBN Capital and FBNQuest Merchant Bank (investment banking arm of Nigeria’s largest and oldest financial services group), raising debt and equity capital for local energy companies, and during which time she was also member from 2017-2019, of the private sector economic advisory group advising the Office of the Vice President on a range of national development policy issues. Prior to FBNQuest Merchant Bank, she was Group Head of the award-winning energy and oil and gas research team at pan-African Ecobank Group covering 33 African markets out of London. In her early career, she worked as a country risk analyst with Control Risks Group and Eurasia Group and worked in international affairs and development with the Development Directorate Générale of the European Commission in Brussels and the International Crisis Group in Dakar, Senegal. She was recognised as a top 275 Global Female Influencer Executives (2020) in Energy by the UK’s Energy Council, and in 2015, won the Best Africa Energy analyst award from Energy Africa US, and was in 2016 recognised as One to Watch in African Energy by Centurion LLP. She was also recognised as a Young Economic leader in Africa under 40, by the Choiseul Institute (2018, 2019 & 2020) and was listed in the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) 100 Under 40 in the 2018 Business and Entrepreneurship Category. She has a BSc & an MSc degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a joint MBA degree from TRIUM – the London School of Economics, HEC School of Management Paris and NYU’s Leonard Stern School of Business (TRIUM). 

Rolake sits on the global advisory boards of Persistent Energy, Africa’s Climate Venture Builder, Aruwa Capital Management, and is a non-executive director on the Global Board of Save the Children International