Rising Star 2023: Obinna Iwuji – World Media Group

Elevator Pitch

In taking over leadership of the employee resource group Wavemaker roots, Obinna has fostered a community of people interested in cultural inclusion in advertising.

With this he has contributed to client pitches and brainstorms, created several community events from fundraisers to public speaking workshops, and established opportunities for employee growth through the creation of mentorship programs.

These events have people as senior as the Global CEO dedicating time to mentoring mid to junior level employees.

Nomination

Since joining Wavemaker at the end of 2020, Obinna has taken on leadership of the employee resource group, Wavemaker Roots.

He leads a team of 12 people who create opportunities for growth for Wavemaker employees through organising public speaking workshops. The sessions aim to support women and people of colour to boost their confidence when presenting publicly and teaches them how to create their personal brand.

Obi has organised community fundraisers for local organisations such as the London Community Foundation and Inside Success.

Obinna Iwuji

Nominated by:

He continuously advocates for Wavemaker to stand behind new diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives such as supporting Muslim women and London youth with getting job/ work experience. Obi has also worked with Brixton Finishing School and Inside Success to create workshops to educate youth from marginalised communities on what it means to work in media and potential opportunities that could exist for them, as they would not traditionally be exposed to jobs in the industry.

He has organised numerous panel discussions collaborating with WPP agencies throughout the network. Discussing topics from how to take ownership of what they see as weakness in their background to become a strength, to how does one navigate the corporate world and having those tough conversations around salary.

While doing all this work, he works as a content and partnership manager in a two-man department, leading creative workshops to unlock bespoke content opportunities for clients unfamiliar with how to utilise content within their workstreams.