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Oke Maduewesi
Oke Maduewesi (born 1975) is a Nigerian Entrepreneur. She is the founder/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zaron group of companies, comprising Zaron International Limited and Zaron Cosmetics Limited and Skin by Zaron. Zaron is Africa's fastest growing cosmetics brand for the Woman of Colour by a Woman of Colour.

‘Bosslady’ as she is fondly called introduces herself as ‘ the face of single parenting, a Christian in the market place and the face of widowhood’ as she is on a mission to change the narrative of these three common situations of life as an African woman.

Early Life & Education
Oke was born 10 September 1975 to a calm yet hardworking and polite father and a mother who was an extremely hardworking businesswoman. Oke's mother would go to several Asian countries and import goods in large amounts to distribute to major markets across Nigeria. Many say Oke got her business acumen from her mother.

Being the last child, her entire family members were (and still are) very protective of her thereby keeping her close to home which led to her attending a private primary/secondary school close to their home in G.R.A. Benin, Edo state, Nigeria. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics as her first degree and later, an MBA from the Leeds Business School, UK.

Career
In 1998, Oke started out at Shell Port Harcourt under the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC a.k.a Youth Service) program in Nigeria. It was a lifetime dream for her to secure a position after the NYSC program but this didn’t happen and it was one of her most depressing experiences. In 1999, she got an offer with the then Intercontinental Bank where she launched her career and moved to Zenith Bank Plc two years later.

Most of her career days in banking were in Marketing and she knew from the onset that she would have to perform optimally to be successful in the industry, so she worked tirelessly to out do her targets. She said “I remember as a rookie on my first banking job, I came top bank-wide in a deposit mobilization challenge, which earned me a cash prize and recommendation letter from the then Managing Director – Erastus Akingbola. That start gave me the confidence requirement to launch my career further.”

She worked in the banking sector in Nigeria for several years and grew to a senior management position, heading one of the key branches in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Her career in the banking industry ended shortly after the darkest memory of her life – the loss of her husband and best friend while she was seven months pregnant and had a two years old daughter. Two years after, she moved to London with her two daughters (four and two years old). In a quest to do more in life, she thought to go back to the classroom for an MBA at Leeds University. In the classroom, many western brands were being studied and this got her thinking “why can’t we (Africans) have a home grown brand as a case study?” So in the classroom was where she got the inspiration to build a brand par excellence. Shortly after, the Zaron (a fusion of her girls' names – Zara and Ona) brand was birthed in 2011 and has grown to be one of the fastest growing cosmetics brands in Africa.

She always attributes her success in running a business to her work experience in the banking sector. According to her, “my banking experience taught me tenacity and drive and l always say that I might not have been able to run this business as effectively as I am doing today without the banking job experience.”

Additional Information
Under the leadership of Founder/CEO, Oke Maduewesi, Zaron was conceived in Leeds in 2010 whilst she was studying for her MBA and birthed in Lagos, Nigeria in 2011 to provide an assortment of cosmetic products carefully formulated to suit diverse women of colour living under different environmental conditions. A multi-award-winning businesswoman and mother of two girls, Oke's entrepreneurial spirit and inspiring determination helped her create her company when she found herself widowed in 2009. She left banking to pursue her passion, creating a range of make-up that would suit all skin tones. Since then, she has brought joy to millions of women of colour who felt unloved and poorly catered for by the cosmetics industry. Zaron runs a supply chain that impacts several countries' economies through a constantly growing supply chain of sales partners including but not limited to – suppliers, sub-suppliers, independent traders, makeup artists, beauty consultants, student distributors, marketers, merchandisers, logistics handlers instore and support staff. In Nigeria alone, Zaron works with 25 direct sales partners and over 1000 indirect sales partners with a workforce of 5-7 staff at each point. Zaron Cosmetics head office in Lagos currently employs over 35 full-time staff who liaise with our sales partners across borders and is also a contributing economic presence in the following countries: Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and counting. In each of the aforementioned countries, Zaron's business activities mostly originate from the capital cities of Accra, Nairobi, Freetown, Kampala, Harare, Abidjan and Yaounde respectively and spreading into other regions within these countries.

Awards and Recognitions
From inception till date, Oke and the Zaron brand have been recognized for numerous accomplishments through awards and special events including; (find below a cross selection of most recent awards) SME CEO of the Year – B2C 2019 – Business Day Awards Excellence in Entrepreneurship – The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning A feature in the YOUWIN! Connect Enterprise Education Book – The Federal ministry ofFinance, Budget and National Planning, Nigeria Beauty Brand of the year 2019(Zaron Cosmetics) – Africa Choice Award 2019 Most Preferred International Cosmetics Brand of the Year 2019 – Kenya Beauty & Cosmetics Award 2019 One of the Keynote Speakers at MIT SLOAN Africa Innovate conference2017 Profiled as one of Africa's Leading Entrepreneurs 2017- Africa's Legacy Project (FoxLife) Guest speaker at the GTBank Fashion Weekend MASTERCLASS 2016 Beauty Campaign of the Year 2016- Genevieve Beauty Awards Product of the Year (skin, make-up and hair)2016- Genevieve Beauty Awards Best Beauty Brand of the year 2016 – ThisDay Style Awards Award of Distinction for Entrepreneurial Savvy in the Beauty Industry 2015 – TW Magazine Anniversary Awards Africa's Best Quality Beauty Products Company of the Year 2015 – African Quality Achievement Awards Best Makeup Brand in West Africa 2015 – ECOWAS Fashion Week Best Beauty Brand of the Year 2015 – ThisDay Style Awards Business Woman of the Year 2014 (Oke Maduewesi MD/CEO) – City People Magazine

CSR Activities
Oke is very passionate about women and children and believes so much in giving back. Through the Zaron brand, she is involved in many charitable activities with these topping the list :– Empowering the financially vulnerable amongst us (especially women and students) through creating widely accessible distribution opportunities at subsidized cost Providing annual seed investments to widows with little or no support for petty trade Celebrating and engaging underprivileged communities in an annual event where children receive school supplies and mothers, food stuff to help feed their families Zaron Widows Day Program Zaron Hunger Free Day Zaron End of Year Food Drive