Ini Abimbola is a business executive with over 20 years’ experience working in the international development space with broad consulting experience & expertise on Corporate Governance, Management Consulting, Sustainability, Development Communications, and Strategy.
Ini is the Founder and former Lead Consultant/CEO of ThistlePraxis Consulting Limited (TPC), a management consulting, sustainability, strategy, and business advisory firm she founded in 2010. TPC provides strategy development, Sustainability management, process improvement, organisational transformation, risk governance, performance management, programme management, and advisory services.
Ini serves as Country & Regional Lead (Sub Saharan Africa) for The CSR Company, a global CSR Network of organisations spanning four continents – South East Asia, Europe, the Middle East & Africa. She is a Lecturer/Member of Faculty, MBA Program on International Corporate Social Responsibility Management at the Ferdinand Porsche FernFH – University of Applied Sciences, Austria.
She guides boards, executives, governance, risk and sustainability practitioners toward social, environmental, and economic innovations that also create shareholder and business value. She is a specialist on corporate governance, sustainability leadership, and transformational business practices and relationships, and has facilitated high-level board retreats and trained C-suite executives both within the private and public sectors.
Before setting up ThistlePraxis Consulting, Ini served as Executive Director of Women in Management & Business (WIMBIZ) as Executive Secretary, where she not only help revitalise the organisation but also moved membership from about 100 members to over 300 members. Ini also created the mentoring program, the corporate governance program for SMEs as well as ensuring the organisation joined global platforms such as the Vital Voices and the African Women Business Network, receiving over $200,000 in grants to enhance its operations in Nigeria.
Ini also served as the pioneer Executive Director, Defence for Children International – Nigeria Section; as a Consultant with the Women, Gender and Development Directorate of the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as well as the African Centre for Gender & Development within the UN Economic Commission, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A 2008 Draper Hills Fellow on Democracy, Development & Rule of Law at Stanford University California and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program, Ini holds degrees in International Relations & Diplomacy and Management. She also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and a Bachelor’s degree in English Language from the University of Calabar.
She is passionate about social change and sits on the Board of The Bridge Leadership Foundation (TBLF), focused on transformational leadership for young people. She also sits on the Advisory Board of The Purple Girl Foundation, a not for profit organisation that provides opportunities and support for enhancing the education of female children in Nigeria. Its primary focus is giving young girls from underprivileged backgrounds, who struggle amid various disadvantages, a chance to improve their lives through educational support – payment of tuition, health insurance, and books.
Ini is a published author of 3 books and over 25 publications (chapters, articles), and has delivered more than 120 presentations in over 15 countries in the last ten years on a range of topics some of which include: Corporate Governance, Change Management, Enterprise Development, Sustainability & CSR.
A member of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Institute of Directors (IOD), Ini sits on the boards or advisory councils of various other organisations including Amazing Amazons, BCB Resources, Serendipity Communications, AXL8, SpeedMeals, and GemFactor.