By Ify Onye InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Funke Osibodu, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (UBN) has been named by a global jury of experts constituted by Financial Times of London as one of the world’s 50 leading businesswomen.

This was contained in Statement by the Bank on Sunday and made available to www.investadvocateng.com.

According to the Statement, Osibodu was chosen in recognition of her impeccable turnaround at Union Bank, where the jury noted she was responsible for strengthening the management of the Bank, improving discipline and ensuring transparency.

The Statement affirmed she is the only African woman and Nigerian that made the top 50 businesswomen list, which included Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods, Güler Sabanci of Sabanci Holding, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ursula Burns of Xerox, Andrea Jung of Avon Products, Ellen Kullman of DuPont, Dong Mingzhu of Gree Electric Appliances, Angela Ahrendts of Burberry, Yoshiko Shinohara of Temp Holdings and Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank.

The Statement further affirmed that the top 50 was assessed on a range of factors including biographical data; size, scope and complexity of the company including turnover and number of employees, number of sectors and countries of operation; and competitive landscape.

“The judges’ decisions were based essentially on performance and durability and only ranked executives managing a group’s controlling company and those that have served at least 12 months in the main executive role were eligible. The panel also took into account each company’s performance over the three years to June 30, 2011, using total shareholder return figures in US dollar terms, where applicable” the Statement said.

According to the Statement, the jury applauded Osibodu’s roles in the Nigerian economy, pointing out that she is a high-profile figure in Nigeria’s business community.

The selection particularly underscored the contribution of Osibodu to the stability of Nigerian financial services sector and economic growth, pointing out the importance of Union Bank as one of “Nigeria’s biggest Banks.”

The Jury noted that with almost three decades in banking, Osibodu has an excellent leadership track record.

Osibodu was Chief Executive of Vigeo Capital and head of the financial and investment services arm of Vigeo Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests in energy, shipping and financial services. She served as Managing Director of two banks-MBC Merchant Bank and Ecobank Nigeria and later joined the Board of the Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).

studied Economics at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, before completing the advanced management programme at Harvard Business School.

Appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restore the then failing Union Bank, Osibodu successfully managed the Rescued Bank into an attractive financial institution and capped her success with a $750 million recapitalisation deal that saw the century-old bank retaining its brand and shareholders reclaiming some values for their hitherto lost investments.

The seven-member jury that selected the top 50 businesswomen out of a long list of highly influential businesswomen across the globe included Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco, president and Chief Executive of General Electric (GE) Europe and North Asia and Chief Executive of GE Germany; Clara Furse, chairwoman of Nomura Bank International and the UK Government Office for Science Foresight project on markets and director of the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions; Rachel Kyte, vice-president of sustainable development at the World Bank and former vice president for business advisory services at International Finance Corporation; Damien O’Brien, chairman, Egon Zehnder International; Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson-the international education and media business comprising Pearson Education, Penguin and the Financial Times Group and former Chief Executive of The Economist Group;  Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of Investor and vice-chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Atlas Copco and SAS and board member of ABB, Coca-Cola and the Stockholm School of Economics and Nora Wu, Managing Partner of Shanghai PwC and member of PwC’s global inclusion and diversity council.

Other businesswomen that made the top 50 included Patricia Woertz of ADM, Gail Kelly of Westpac, Annika Falkengren of SEB, Carol Meyrowitz of TJX, Alison Cooper of Imperial Tobacco, Cynthia Carroll of Anglo American, Nancy McKinstry of Wolters Kluwer, Vinita Bali of Britannia Industries, Chua Sock Koong of Singapore Telecommunications, Emma Marcegaglia of Marcegaglia, Li Xiaolin of China Power International Development, Zhang Xin of Soho China, Nahed Taher of Gulf One Investment Bank, Cheung Yan of Nine Dragons Paper, Monika Ribar of Panalpina, Chu Lam Yiu of Huabao International Holdings, Gina Reinhart of Hancock Prospecting, Ilene Gordon of Corn Products International, Sara Mathew of Dun & Bradstreet, Harriet Green of Premier Farnell and Angela Braly of WellPoint.

Others were Kate Swann of WH Smith, Ruby McGregor-Smith of Mitie Group, Lynn Laverty Elsenhans of Sunoco, Olivia Lum of Hyflux, Ines Kolmsee of SKW, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Anita Zucker of InterTech Group, Debra Cafaro of Ventas, Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller of Trumpf, Janet Robinson of The New York Times Company, Ho Ching of Temasek Holdings, Mindy Grossman of HSN, Shobhana Bhartia of HT Media, Maggie Wilderotter of Frontier Communications, Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank, Hyun Jeong-eun of Hyundai, Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette of Sonepar and Laura Sen of BJ’s.