Dr Lucy Suryhel Newman’s overall career mission is “to add lasting value to people, organizations and systems in the course of her personal & professional growth and development”.
She was born Lucy Surhyel Angaya Bwala [also known as Mitti – Surhyel, after her paternal grandmother], to Mallam Angaya Mshelbwala and Malama Tani Angaya Mshelbwala [nee Nuhu Zoaka] on Friday July 16, 1965 in Mubi, in the former North Eastern State of Nigeria [Now Adamawa State]. She is by birth, an indigene of Marama within Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State in Nigeria.
For her early education, she attended the Shehu Garbai Primary School in Maiduguri and then Federal Government College Kaduna. From there, she proceeded to the School of Basic Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and went on to undertake her undergraduate studies in Business Administration, with majors in Financial Management. She graduated from ABU Zaria in 1987 but went on to earn bagged a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in 1993, with a focus on International Business. For a tertiary degree, she proceeded to the University of Phoenix, Arizona USA, graduating in 2008 with a Doctoral in Business Administration, with focus on Leadership and Performance.
Dr. Newman presents a hybrid of development nance, private sector banking, consulting and academic orientation. She has the reputation of being a results-focused person with proven success in aligning strategy, structure, people, policies and systems to optimize individual and organizational performance via practice, consulting, research and capacity building. She has over twenty-eight (28) years of industry and consulting experience. About ten years of the rst phase of her working career was with Borno Investment Company, a state development nance institution. Nine years out of her 28 years working experience were acquired from four banks in Nigeria [Omegabank Plc, FSB International Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc] over the period 1997 – 2006 in areas including treasury marketing, product and business development, human resources management and strategy as well as post-merger integration. Her work from August 2006 to May 2009, when she left PwC Nigeria to become the MD/CEO of FITC in May 2009 was in the Business Advisory Performance Improvement Practice of the rm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria.
In terms of professional affiliations and certifications, Dr. Newman is:
- The 2012/2014 International Director on the global board of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)
- Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM)
- Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Credit Administrators (ICA)
- Member of the Nigerian Institute of Directors (IOD)
- Member, National Association of Corporate Directors, USA
- An Alumni of the Centre for Creative Leadership [CCL] Colorado Springs USA’s Leadership at the Peak Program
- A member of the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI) USA
- A Professional Member of the Development Executive Group of Washington DC, USA.
- An Authorized IFC/FITC Trainer under the IFC-Global Corporate Governance Forum
- A Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) of the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI) USA
- A Certified Practitioner of the Thomas International Psychometric Assessment System
- A Certified practitioner of the Persona Global Organizational Diagnostics System
Some of her ad-hoc sectorial and national responsibilities in the past few years include:
- 1st Vice Chairman of the IOD’s Women Directors’ Development Committee [WDDC] and Chairman of the WDDC’s Sub Committee on Publicity & Participation.
- Vice-Chair of the CIPM Committee on the Management of Unemployment Challenge in Nigeria (MNUC) (2015-2016)Chairman, FSS2020 Human Capital Development Implementation Committee May 2009 to December 2011
- Member, Governing Council of Bank Directors’ Association of Nigeria [BDAN] – May 2009 to date
- Member, Sub-Committee on Ethics & Professionalism of the Bankers’ Committee –May 2009 to date
- Member, Investigation Panel of the Sub- Committee on Ethics & Professionalism of the Nigerian Bankers’ Committee –May 2009 to date
- Member, Executive Committee of the West African Bankers’ Association (WABA) –May 2009 to date
- Member, CPT Global Financial Services Sector Group of the International Society for Performance Improvement [ISPI], USA to January 2009 to date
- Member, International Task Force of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) – January 2008 to April 2009
- Member, Implementation Advisory Committee for Repositioning of the Center for Management Development [CMD] –June to September 2009.
Some of her recently published articles, chapters and books include:
- Branding Beyond Logo and Colour : A case study of FITC’s evidence based transformation. Being Chapter 13 of the book, J. Stefaniak (Ed.) (2015) Cases on Human Performance Improvement Technologies. Hershey, PA: IGI Publishing.
- Leveraging Corporate Governance for Economic Development: Imperatives for Regulators in Sub Saharan Africa. A paper published in Financial Nigeria; Development and Finance Journal, Vol. 6 No. 63, October 2013; pp: 16-18
- Issues and Challenges of Gender Diversity and Inclusiveness. A paper published in the Human resource Management Journal; Journal of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Vol. 4 No: 1, 2012, 29-3
- Transformational Leadership; A Leadership approach for changing Times. A paper published in the FITC Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 2 No , 2011; pp 03-17
- Effects of Employee Performance Management Systems on Employee Learning and Leadership Development [2010] – Published by LAP Publishing, Germany
- The CEO’s triple dilemma of compensation, employee and corporate performance. Being Chapter 8 of The Refractive Thinker [Vol I, 2009], Published by Lentz Leadership Institute, USA
Some of her recently received awards and recognitions:
- Outstanding Leadership Award as a Member of the outgoing Global Board of ISPI from 2012/2014
- Outstanding Mothers’ recognition 2014, from the R – Wells Media
- 2014 Credit Management Honours Award (CMHA), from the Institute of Credit Administrators of Nigeria (ICA).
- The Woman of Merit Gold Award by PSR Magazine
In her personal life, Dr Newman plays various intellectual and nancial contributory roles to many religious charities and community development initiatives in Nigeria and across West Africa. She has several publications to her credit and has facilitated at many premium conferences in Nigeria and internationally. She has so far maintained a mentoring relationship with over 30 young men and women in career and personal development. Dr Newman enjoys her role as a mother to three interesting male personalities aged between 26 and 12 years. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling across cultures, listening to music, reading, watching bestseller movies, taking long walks and nature watch.
Dr Newman’s performance as CEO of FITC from May 2009 to date:
She has facilitated at over hundred (100) seminars and conferences both locally and internationally from May 2009 to date, with great commendations and laurels. FITC’s performance over her tenure, in quantitative terms and qualitative terms include;
- FITC’s acquisition and remodeling of its own building after over 29 years of rented accommodation and relocation to this address, in Ebute Metta Yaba, Lagos
- Obtaining layout approval in 2011, for the 6.48 hectares of land that FITC acquired in Lekki in 2001. Went further to secure the fencing approval in 2012. Thus processes leading to construction of perimeter fencing of the campus and land clearing have commenced and are expected to be completed by before close of 2015. This, makes the long standing aspiration of FITC Lekki Campus more feasible.
- In terms of net worth, even with adjustments in assets valuation and provisions to fund staff gratuity fund as a fall out of FITC’s conversion of its accounts from GAAP to IFRS, FITC’s records indicate an over 100% increase in net worth, over the 6 year period ending 2014
- In terms of expansion in FITC operations, to show impact over the six year time scale, as at December 2008, FITC’s cumulative number of participants from its inception in 1981 was 36, 523. However as at December 2014, FITC’s cumulative number of participants from inception had risen to 54,061 participants, which indicates that 47.98% of FITC’s incremental participants over its 33 years life span, was secured within Dr. Newman’s tenure as CEO.
- In terms of qualitative performance within her term in ofce, FITC has also received various awards and secured additional high quality collaborations with some strategic institutions including its collaboration with the International Finance Corporation as a Corporate Governance Center for Banks.
Some key awards received by FITC from its inception were received during Dr Newman’s tenure and these include:
1. The Business Initiative Directions’ Gold Category Award for Quality, received 2012 in New York, USA.
2. The 2012 Great Place To Work [GPTW] award – FITC emerged as 7th out of 225 workplaces in Nigeria. Thus, the only non prot in the top 10 winners in the 2012 Great Place to Work awards in the maiden Nigerian edition.
3. The West African Award for Training Excellence and Innovative Services, awarded by Aspire West Africa and received in Accra, Ghana.
4. The IFTDO [International Federation of Training and Development Organizations] 2013 award of excellence for FITC’s outstanding contributions as Change Agent in Learning and Development in Africa.
5. 2014 ADM [African Development Magazine] Award of Excellence as the Most Efficient Professional Services Firm for the Year.
6. The 2015 Great Place To Work Best Company in Delivering Excellence in Leadership Award.