It is with great regret that we announce that our current Website Director Jolade Ruiz will be leaving her post on the Executive Team for personal reasons. We thank her very much for all of her hard work and sacrifice in the name of NAPAC and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.
With that said, we are very excited about our newly appointed Website Director Dr. Kola Thomas. Dr. Kola Thomas is a Communications and Marketing Director with City of Oakland Office of Parks and Recreation. Trained in the field of Communication Arts, with advanced degrees in Communications and Organizational Leadership, he served as Chief Legislative Aide in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Senator Lere Adesina, and was Chair of the Legislative Aide Council in the second republic. He was for 10 years the Executive Director of the Center for African and African American Arts and Culture, San Francisco, CA; Mediator with the California Lawyers for the Arts Mediation Program; and Principal of Pacific Phoenix Development – a strategic corporate compliance, crisis management and personal representation company.
He also assists the community in designing, managing and serving as content-developer of many websites. He is the Founder and CEO of the African Global Institute-USA- whose mission is the integration, assimilation and acculturation of African immigrants in the USA; and taught Yoruba Language and Culture (BLS117), and Yoruba Culture and Philosophy (BLS118) at San Francisco State University. He is on the Advisory Board of the California Nigeria Forum; and very active on issues related to representing the best interest of Nigeria globally, and Africa generally.
We would also like to announce the appointment of Mr. Taiye Doherty as The Northern California Mobilization Chair. Mr. Taiye Doherty is an Asset Manager for Citigroup Global Market Inc, a 20 year veteran of the securities industry previously worked as a Managing Director of sub-Sahara Africa for Internet Securities working with financial institutions and corporate borrowers.
Mr. Doherty, a trained Economist and an avid reader of African literature, has been involved in various causes of concern to the African community. He was involved with the Apartheid movement on college campuses in the mid to late 1980’s, the Ken Saro Wiwa movement against the Nigerian regime and Shell Oil; a founding member of the League of Patriotic Nigerian LOPAN and a member of California Nigeria Forum.
Mr. Doherty is an expert at fiduciary practices which define the global standard of excellence for investment stewards and investment advisors. An Accredited Investment Fiduciary, and an experienced management and financial professional with successful careers in business development and management.
Needless to say, we are very excited to appoint such distinguished men to our Executive Team and look forward to the great work they will undoubtedly do for NAPAC.