Leadership

Leading From a Distance | Leadership Lessons

June 22, 2021  • Aspen Global Leadership Network

For everyone, living through the pandemic has meant change. For ‘Tokunboh Ishmael (Finance Leaders Fellow), one of the biggest changes has been living and leading her asset management firm Alitheia Capital, based in Lagos, Nigeria, from more than 4,000 miles away in London. 

While physically apart from her work, the gender-smart fund – a fund supporting female entrepreneurs and founders providing essential services – she built before the pandemic hit became even more relevant to the needs brought on by the crisis. The accelerator turned on and ‘Tokunboh’s focus became filling funding gaps in the health, education, and energy sectors to ensure people got the resources they needed. 

“We’ve been very proactive in thinking about how we get more money into the hands of female founders, how we get diversity into boards… talking about the inclusivity of women as the key factor in economies to raise the economic prosperity for everybody.”

Now, ‘Tokunboh is sharing her #LeadershipLessons on how she was able to balance working from a distance as well as what the pandemic reinforced about creating an inclusive economy. 


‘Tokunboh Ishmael is the co-founder and managing director of Alitheia Capital, an investment management and advisory firm focused on making private equity investments in businesses with the potential to scale and solve challenges, such as limited access to finance and energy, and food scarcity. ‘Tokunboh has over 20 years’ experience spanning investment banking, private equity investing, technology and new business development in the USA, Europe and Africa. ‘Tokunboh is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Finance Leaders Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

The Finance Leaders Fellowship develops a community of effective and enlightened leaders in the global finance industry and challenges them to advance the positive impact of finance on society.


Leadership Lessons – a Video Series from the Aspen Global Leadership Network

The impacts of COVID-19 continue to challenge our communities. However, through these challenges, there’s a lot to be learned. In “Leadership Lessons” hear from leaders who have stepped up in new ways and remained steadfast in their values through this crisis. How did they make the tough decisions? How have they changed as leaders? Tune in and gain top insights from values-driven leaders – Fellows in the Aspen Global Leadership Network – who are battling trade-offs, creating rapid responses to community needs, sharpening new skills, and more.

New episodes are released Tuesdays and Thursdays on the AGLN’s social media handles. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to watch in real-time.