PROFILE
Richard Ikiebe, is a scholar of Contemporary Media History and Leadership at the School of Media and Communication, SMC, of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos Nigeria. He joined the faculty of the SMC as a Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Leadership in Journalism (CLeJ), in 2009. At the SMC, he teaches graduate and executive courses in Journalism, Journalism History and Media Leadership. In addition to his roles at the SMC, Ikiebe is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom. In 2012/13, Ikiebe served as a member of the Global Communication Certification Council of the International Association of Business Communicators IABC, to prepare a syllabus and implement a certification scheme to ISO standard for the marketing communication profession.
An accomplished Media and Management Consultant, Ikiebe is the chairman of the Board of BusinessDay Newspaper, the leading daily business newspaper in Nigeria; he has worked as Special Adviser (1998-99) to the Chief of General Staff (Nigeria’s Military Vice President), and as Senior Policy Adviser to Minister of Information (1986-1990). A former Chief Executive of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Ikiebe has served on the boards of several companies including as Vice Chairman of Cornerstone Insurance Company Plc.
As a communicator, Ikiebe has rich and varied experience in public communication and the media – print as well as broadcast. For over 35 years he has worked to design and manage effective communications strategies for private and public sector organisations as follows:
• World Bank team as consultant to the Federal Ministry of Information and the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE)
• Media and Communication Consultant to Vision 2010; and the Africa Union
• The Pan African News Agency, Dakar Senegal as editor (English Service)
• The Daily Times of Nigeria, Newswatch Magazine, as a prolific Senior Staff Writer
• Hosted acclaimed talk shows for the FRCN and the NTA broadcast networks in Nigeria
• Leads regular media study tour for Nigerian media executives to top media institutions in Britain from the Centre for Leadership in Journalism
• As a member of the board of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, NIPC, and its Chairman of the Council’s ‘Real-sector’, he led several trade and investment missions outside Nigeria.
His current research focuses on the Press, National Elections and the Politics of Belonging in Nigeria. In his forthcoming book, Beyond the Classroom: Reflections of Nigerian Media Scholars, he provides a platform for media scholars to discuss contemporary media education in Nigeria. He has authored, edited or co-edited six other books, including, most recently, Nigerian Media Leaders: Voices Beyond the Newsroom (in two volumes). Others are Kolade’s Canons (in three volumes) and Future Tense: Travails of NEXT and Nigerian Journalism in the Digital Age.
He is a teacher, coach, media consultant and pastor; he is happily married with a family.