The Board of Directors and Management of Wakanow Group has appointed Mrs Adenike Macaulay as Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow Nigeria effective January 2023.
She is a transformational leader with several years of experience in the travel industry and has led commercial activities for Wakanow since July 2021 as Chief Commercial Officer.
While announcing the appointment, the Group CEO of Wakanow Group, Mr Bayo Adedeji said: “We are delighted to announce the appointment of Mrs Adenike Macaulay as the Chief Executive Officer of Wakanow. She has been an invaluable addition to the management of Wakanow since she joined us and with her vast experience and exposure in the aviation sector, we definitely will consolidate our growth trajectory in Nigeria.
“We are expanding into new verticals and countries in Africa and beyond to take advantage of new business opportunities in the emerging competitive landscape leveraging our deep competence and expertise in the travel tech industry, and I will be leading this venture as Group CEO.
“We are very excited about the bright future ahead of us in the African travel and tourism industry by providing end-to-end services easily accessible to every African by leveraging technology and strategic partnerships”.
The new CEO said: “ The past 18 months with Wakanow have been immensely exciting as we have recorded several milestones and record breaking results in the history of the company. I’m excited to take on the new responsibility saddled upon me by the board and management of Wakanow and look forward to leading and building with an immensely talented team”.
Prior to joining Wakanow, Macaulay was the first female and first Nigerian to be appointed as General Manager of Sales for Lufthansa Group in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea where she led the teams in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Malabo, driving all commercial and sales activities for Lufthansa Group in the region.
She is the immediate past Chairperson of the International Air Transport Association Local Customer Advisory Group and Vice Chair of the IATA Agency Program Joint Council.
She holds an MBA from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, a BSc in Systems Engineering from the University of Lagos, and a professional diploma from the Digital Marketing Institute, Ireland, amongst other qualifications.
Macaulay was recently recognised by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Africa’s Travel and Hospitality industry. She was also recognised by Leading Ladies Africa as one of Nigeria’s 100 most inspiring women in 2019, by Guardian Nigeria as Woman of the Week in March 2019, and by Poets & Quants as top 100 MBAs worldwide in 2020.
Wakanow has become renowned for her support to local and international airlines and enhancing the Nigerian aviation industry with distinct products and services. The travel tech company is built to cater to all the travel needs of travel enthusiasts from flights, hotels, holiday experiences, visa processing, COVID-19 tests, among other offerings for Nigerian travelers.
