ADEOLA AZEEZ

Adeola Azeez is a seasoned banker with over 20 years of professional experience, more than half of which has been as Deputy Country Representative/Deputy Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Nigeria, the leading client-centric global universal bank with approximately 30 million customer accounts and activities in more than 70 countries and jurisdictions.

In her role as Deputy Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Nigeria, Adeola oversees the banks business operations in the region, including managing liaisons between Deutsche Bank offshore and its client base of Nigerian banks. She has successfully guided the local financial institutional clients across the spectrum of international financial services and the myriad of challenges of correspondent banking.

Adeola is the pioneer of the current system of Correspondent Banking in Nigeria, which she has been developing since she joined Deutsche and its predecessor companies, Bankers Trust Company, New York, in 1989. Through her efforts, boldness, and sheer determination to see Nigerian businesses capitalise on the burgeoning economic potential to attract foreign investments, thereby increasing opportunities for economic growth, she has forged ahead to build one of the largest correspondent bank networks in Nigeria and a powerful industry presence. In addition, her generosity of spirit has made her a fundamental asset in the Nigerian Banking Industry, as she freely shares her knowledge with fellow bankers conducting both formal and informal capacity building and mentoring almost all the young people she meets.

Adeola’s passion for socio-economic development in Nigeria, became focused on women in particular, when in 2002, she became one of the founding members of Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WIMBIZ), a non-governmental organisation that aims to promote women’s entrepreneurship and advancement across all sectors.

In 2011 Adeola was elected as the Chairperson of WIMBIZ. Even in this non-Executive capacity, her personal mantra “keep moving, keep pushing; you only get out of life what you put into it” was clearly evident. Notable among her many achievements as WIMBIZ Chair are the: raised profile and membership of the organization, especially among young ladies and other previously under-represented women in the Northern States of Nigeria; engagement of Vital Voices, a US based NGO established by Hilary Clinton, as a funding agency to assist WIMBIZ women in particular and Nigerian women in general to position their businesses for international trade; privilege for WIMBIZ to partner with the Federal Ministry of Finance on the YouWiN! Women 2012/13 Programme; internal redesign of the organisation to enable greater efficiency, sustainability and visibility of the brand to become a household name.

Adeola has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Lagos and an LLB. in Law from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. She is a board member of the Pauline’s Cancer Awareness Foundation and also of WIMBIZ.

Adeola is married with three children.