U.S President-elect, Joe Biden, announced the appointment of Nigerian-American Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo as a member of the office of the White House Counsel, to serve as an Associate Counsel.

He announced it this week in a statement seen on his transition website.

A part of the statement reads:

• “The Counsels are experienced and accomplished individuals, have a wide range of knowledge from various fields and will be ready to get to work on day one.”

What you should know about Funmi Badejo

• Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo, before the announcement, was General Counsel of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by House Majority Whip, James E. Clyburn.
• Other government roles she has served include serving as Counsel for Policy to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office, and Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama-Biden administration.
• She started her career as an associate with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and was also a Legal Counsel at Palantir Technologies Inc.
• She is a graduate of Political Science from the University of Florida, with a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University and holds a Law Doctorate from the University of California School of Law.
• She becomes the 3rd Nigerian American to be appointed under the Biden Government.

Biden’s transition committee said the new Counsels would work under the direction of White House Counsel, Dana Remus, and “help restore faith in the rule of law and the accountability of government institutions.”

In case you missed it

• Nairametrics reported last month that United States President-elect, Joe Biden, selected a Nigerian-born attorney, Adewale Adeyemo, as the Deputy Treasury Secretary.
• Osaremen Okolo, 26, was also appointed as COVID Policy Advisor and a member of the COVID-19 Response Team.

Pfizer (www.Pfizer.com) announced today the appointment of Patrick van der Loo as Regional President for Africa and the Middle East (AfME) region. Patrick’s Pfizer experience spans more than 20 years in leadership roles with multiple successes across geographies. In his new role as Regional President for AfME, Patrick will lead commercial operations to bring scientific breakthroughs in vaccines, oncology, rare diseases, internal medicine, hospitals, and inflammation & immunology, to serve patients.

READ: Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine appears effective against key mutation – Study reveals

Commenting on his appointment, Patrick said: “This year has made me even more grateful and proud to be part of Pfizer. The global pandemic has accentuated our purpose as a company and reinforced our commitment to patients and communities worldwide. AfME is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing markets with increasing demand for innovative health treatments and services. Overall, the region has shown remarkable resilience due to strong leadership and sound policies.”

READ: OPEC cites vaccine as most important factor for oil in 2021 as Nigeria pushes for cuts

He added: “Pfizer has been operating for over 60 years in AfME. I look forward to continuing this journey and bringing our breakthroughs to address unmet patient needs. My top priority will remain to work with our teams to ensure greater access to our medicines across our strategic therapeutic areas. We will seek even stronger collaboration with healthcare professionals, communities, and governments to change the lives of millions of people and protect them from tomorrow’s health threats.”

READ: Nigeria contributes about 75% of West Africa’s regional GDP – AfDB

Patrick has been passionate about the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry from the start of his career. He has managed some of Pfizer’s largest therapeutic areas in cardiovascular and neuroscience globally and led the commercial development efforts of a 500+ molecule business.

READ: 40 years old British airline grounded due to drop in travels

In his previous role, Patrick served as the Developed Asia Cluster Lead and General Manager for Pfizer’s Hospital Business Unit, responsible for leading and executing Pfizer’s commercial and cultural strategy in Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Before this role, Patrick worked as the Emerging Asia Cluster Lead for the Pfizer Essential Health business.

Nigeria’s most innovative and customer-centric telecommunications company, 9mobile, has announced a new Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Deputy Chief Technical Officer, and Director of Strategy within its Senior Management team.

Juergen Peschel has been appointed as the New CTO, Baqi Salihu, Deputy CTO, and Karn Gulati as Director of Strategy.

As CTO, Peschel, an experienced professional with an international executive track record within the IT, Managed Services & Telecommunications Industry, including expertise in a wide variety of industry verticals and markets, will oversee the evolution and integration of the company’s technical functions.

Peschel has over 25 years of extensive international and operational experience as a technology and business leader. Over the years, he has led Information Technology teams, built VAS Services, IP, and transport networks for Vodafone across all European markets, and engaged with emerging markets across the world for subsea, carrier, and satellite services. He successfully launched the mobile payment service Mpesa in Kenya.

As Deputy CTO, Salihu will support the CTO to drive technology decisions in line with current trends and align the technical and transformation initiatives of 9mobile.

He is a seasoned professional with over 18 years of Mobile Telecoms Engineering, Operations, RF Planning & Optimization and Digital Services experience. He led the Network QOS and Support Department of 9mobile as the Director Network Quality of Service since June 2018.

Salihu executed the LTE re-farm solution using 1800MHz spectrum, achieving wider mobile broadband coverage, slashing the number of sites, and reducing carbon emissions while ensuring high-quality data service. This project significantly reduced TCO, enhanced users’ mobile broadband quality of experience, increased brand value for 9mobile while saving about $152m in spectrum fees. He joined 9mobile in December 2008.

The new Director of Strategy, Gulati, will be responsible for developing strategic, tactical, and operational initiatives.

He is a long-serving Management Consultant with over 12 years of experience in the telecom and technology sector.  He has led Advisory services teams focusing on Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) industry and has worked across India, Africa, and South East Asia for various telecom clients. He also took a break and founded a tech & food start-up during his entrepreneurial stint for three years. His accomplishments include programme management of large-scale projects, achieving operational excellence with digitization and process engineering, customer strategy, and greenfield launches.

In their roles, the trio will lead decisions in line with current trends and strategic vision within their respective areas. They will provide hands-on leadership in ensuring that the 9mobile plans are fully aligned and structured to deliver its business goals.

Commenting on their appointments, Chief Executive Officer, 9mobile, Alan Sinfield said: “9mobile remains fully committed to executing its business strategies with the help of a high-performing team of dedicated, hardworking employees. The collective knowledge, expertise, and experience that Juergen, Baqi, and Karn bring to the Organisation further strengthen our business. It reinforces our position at the forefront of delivering excellent products and services to our over 13 million customers. These promotions continue to consolidate the leadership of our Organisation and are evidence of the great career opportunities that employment with 9mobile offers.”