Two Nigerians, Tokunboh Ishmael and Lai Yahaya, were yesterday named as Yale
World Fellows.

"While Ishmael is an impact investment pioneer, Yahaya is an oil sector transparency advocate," the President of Yale University, Richard C. Levin, said as he announced them as the 2013 Yale World Fellows.

Ishmael is an investment professional with
over 20 years' experience spanning investment banking, private equity
investing, technology and new business
development. She is co-founder and
Managing Director of Alitheia Capital, a
fund management and investment firm
based in Nigeria that channels private
equity investments into businesses and
broadens access to finance, energy and
housing for SMEs and low-income
households.

Ishmael's previous roles include Country
Partner for Aureos West Africa, and Mergers and Acquisition banker at Salomon Smith Barney. Ishmael is passionate about transforming lives through meaningful investments that drive job and wealth creation.

Yahaya, a policy entrepreneur, is currently
Team Leader of the Facility for Oil Sector
Transparency and Reform (FOSTER), a
donor-funded programme that supports
government and civil society in a bid to
push for greater transparency,
accountability and reform in the Nigerian
oil sector. Previously, he was a technical
adviser on the Nigerian Presidential
Taskforce on Power and worked on the
Roadmap for Power Sector Reform. He is
an ardent activist for probity, efficiency
and best practice in government and the
private sector.

Ishmael and Yahaya are among 16 World
Fellows selected this year, from a pool of
about 2,500 applicants. This year's cohort
brings the total number of Yale World
Fellows since the programme's inception in
2002 to 238, representing 81 countries.
The Yale World Fellows Programme is the
university's signature global leadership
development initiative and a core element
of Yale's ongoing commitment to
internationalisation.
Each year, the university invites a group of exemplary mid-career professionals from a wide range of fields and countries for an
intensive four-month period of academic
enrichment and leadership training.
Four previous Yale World Fellows hailed
from Nigeria. They are: Bibi Bakare-Yusuf,
Co-founder and Publishing Director,
Cassava Republic Press; Hauwa Ibrahim,
Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer,
Harvard Divinity School; Ibidapo Oyewole,
Technical Adviser, National Planning
Commission; and Philomena Chinwe
Uwandu, Legal Adviser to the Federal
Government of Nigeria.

"The Yale World Fellows Programme
consistently attracts outstanding talent,"
said World Fellows programme director
Michael Cappello, professor of paediatrics
at Yale School of Medicine.

"The 16 individuals selected this year are
each poised to become even more effective
change-makers in their societies and
around the world. This unique leadership
training opportunity will no doubt inspire
their many future contributions to the
global community."

The mission of the Yale World Fellows
Programme is to cultivate and empower a
community of globally engaged leaders
committed to positive change through
cross-disciplinary dialogue and action. It
has at its core three main goals: to provide
advanced training to emerging leaders
from diverse disciplines and countries, to
link this network of world leaders to each
other and to Yale, and to expand and
deepen international understanding.

Great news for the brothers and for our country Nigeria.

Source : http://m.allafrica.com/stories/201304111016.html/

Here is there pictures and twitter account.
Lai Yahaya (@laiyahaya) (Male)

Tokunboh Ishmael (@tolushola) (female )