Governance expert and corporate executive, Funmi Ekundayo, has been elected President of the Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA), the leading global body for governance professionals and corporate secretaries across multiple continents.

Her election, announced over the weekend on CSIA’s official website, represents a significant achievement for Nigeria’s corporate governance community. It also reinforces Ekundayo’s reputation as one of the country’s most respected voices in governance, law, and financial services.

Ekundayo currently serves as the Group Managing Director of STL Capital Group, where she has overseen major transformation initiatives that strengthened the company’s presence in Nigeria’s trust and fiduciary services landscape.

According to her CSIA profile, she is an alumna of Harvard Business School and holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Law from the University of Lagos.

As seasoned professional, she is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) and sits on its Governing Council. She recently concluded her historic tenure as President and Chairman of ICSAN (2023–2025), becoming the institute’s first female President in its 57-year history. Her administration was credited with institutional reforms, stronger capacity-building programmes, and greater visibility for the profession.

Funmi has served and impacted the Institute in many ways both directly and through achievements recorded in the various Committees she has had the privilege to lead and serve as follows:

• Chairman, Finance & General Purposes Committee

• Chairman, Conference, and AGM Committee

• Chairman of the Law Reform Committee that carried out a holistic review of the extant ICSAN Act

• Chairman, Roundtable on Corporate Governance Committee

• Chairman, Public Lecture Committee

• Chairman, Nominations and Governance Committee

• Chairman, Presidential Intervention Committee on the ICSAN Building Project

• Member, Finance & General Purposes Committee (two-term member)

• Member, Building Project Committee (two-term member)

• Consistently secured sponsorships for the Institute’s programmes and made financial support towards the success of many of the Institute’s activities both at the National and Chapter levels.

• Voluntarily and gladly served the Institute on a pro-bono basis from inception to date.

• Mentoring of younger members of the Institute

Ekundayo brings nearly three decades of experience to her new global role. She began her career at Bentley, Edu & Co. (in association with Irving & Bonnar), where she spent almost ten years in legal practice before moving into financial services and capital markets. She later held senior roles at Sterling Asset Management & Trustees and United Capital Trustees before joining STL Trustees, rising to Managing Director/CEO and eventually Group Managing Director of STL Capital Group.

She is a past President of the Association of Corporate Trustees of Nigeria and previously served as Honorary Treasurer and Vice President of CSIA before now assuming its top leadership position.

Ekundayo is a Fellow of several professional bodies, including the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, the Institute of Capital Market Registrars, the Chartered Institute of Directors, the Institute of Investment Advisers and Portfolio Managers, and the Association of Enterprise Risk Management Professionals. She is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Ekundayo said she intends to work closely with member institutes worldwide to strengthen global governance standards, deepen capacity-building efforts, and enhance CSIA’s profile as a leading international voice for governance professionals.