Chude Jideonwo

Nigeria

Occupational Information

Job Title: Founder of Joy Inc

Professional History

Chude Jideonwo is a Nigerian TV host, filmmaker, media entrepreneur, and lawyer. He is the founder of Joy, Inc., an American benefit corporation with a Nigerian subsidiary, which aims to make people happier. He is the executive producer and host of #WithChude, a special series of targeted multimedia (video, audio, text, event) conversations and investigations that leverage his voice, network, passion, and interviews to underline issues, raise consciousness, and spark movements; especially in Africa and for Africans. Focused on narratives that enable and strengthen the mind (mental health), heart (emotional health), and spirit (spiritual health), the themes of #WithChude center on empathy, compassion, mindfulness, wellness, happiness, love, joy, and food for the soul.

He is also the director of #ChudeExplains, a series of films that takes stories off the headlines and goes in-depth to find and explain the hidden truths that explain who we are and where we go next – with a focus on social justice and culture. His very first film, Awaiting Trial, was an Official Selection and Nominee for the Africa International Film Festival. He was also nominated for The Force of Wellness Prize at the Trend Upp Awards 2021.

Chude has been a Forbes 30 under 30 honouree, a CNBC Young Business Leader of the Year winner, an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow, and a World Fellow at Yale University. His writing and work have been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, the Huffington Post, and the Financial Times, and he is the author of two b ooks, ‘Are We The Turning Point Generation?’ and ‘How to Win Elections in Africa: Parallels with Donald Trump’.  In 2023, he was appointed as Board Chair for TIERs, The Initiative for Equal Rights, in Nigeria.

Before Joy, Inc., he led the African media group, RED|For Africa for 13 years, working on national elections and social movements in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Liberia. He is a co-founder of The Future Project, which is focused on inspiring leadership, building entrepreneurs, and using the media (traditional and new) as a tool for social change. Through RED, his team has led communication campaigns for two Nigerian presidents and a Ghanaian President.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Laws, Nigerian Law School, Abuja
LLB, University of Lagos
MSc, Media, and Communication, Pan-African University, Lagos
World Fellow, Yale University

Programme

2018 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow

 Additional Tags: Law, Media, Communications, Entrepreneur, Literature