CLAIRE IGHODARO CBE

Claire Ighodaro CBE was born in London in 1953 to Nigerian parents who, in an era when young African families in London faced severe accommodation barriers, were forced to put her into foster care.

She grew up in London living with an English family until aged eight when she was sent to rejoin her parents and six siblings in West Africa, with the resulting cultural adjustment. A nurturing but competitive environment in Nigeria imbued her with a great love of learning. She studied at Queens College Lagos between 1964 and 1968 and then St Anne’s School Ibadan until 1970 and later studied accounting at the University of Lagos.

In the seventies, Claire returned to the UK and, at a time when there were few black or female accountants, embarked on a challenging career in accounting that would take her to her first leadership role at Otis Elevators in 1979, the first black manager in the organisation, and in 1984 on to an 18 year career with BT PLC where she was BT Group Broadband Finance Director.

In 2003 she became the first female and first black President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Her other Board roles have included Audit Committee Chair of Lloyd’s, Flood Re, the Lending Standards Board, the Open University and the British Council; Governance Committee Chair of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch International and Board Member of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants.

Currently, Claire is Board Chair of AXA XL - UK Entities and of KPMG UK Audit Board. She is also Board member and Remuneration Committee Chair of Pennon Group PLC and a Leadership Council member of TheCityUK.

Claire, who is married with three adult daughters and six grandchildren, was awarded a CBE for services to business in 2008 and an honorary doctorate from The Open University in 2015.