Adenike Macaulay is a transformational leader with over 13 years of experience in the Travel industry widely recognized as a strong voice dedicated to promoting travel to and from Africa earning her multiple global awards and recognitions. Currently Chief Executive Officer for Wakanow.com, the largest online travel agency, and travel tech company in Africa. Prior to joining Wakanow, she was the first female and first Nigerian to be appointed as General Manager Sales for Lufthansa Group in Nigeria & Equatorial Guinea where she led the teams in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Malabo, driving all commercial and sales activities for Lufthansa Group in the region.
She has held various positions across Sub-Sahara Africa, overseeing diverse teams as Regional marketing manager and Head of Sales products and programs for Lufthansa Group. She is also the immediate past Chairperson of the International Air Transport Association Local Customer Advisory Group (LCAG) and Vice Chair of IATA Agency Program Joint Council (APJC). She holds an MBA from the University of Warwick in the UK, BSc in Systems Engineering from the University of Lagos and a professional diploma from the Digital Marketing Institute, Ireland amongst other qualifications.
She was nominated in the Most Influential people of Africa Descent Travel & Tourism edition, recognized by Leading Ladies Africa as one of Nigeria’s 100 most inspiring women in 2019, by Guardian Nigeria as Woman of the week in March 2019, by Poets & Quants as top 100 MBAs worldwide in 2020, recognized in 2021 as Top 30 Tourism & Hospitality influencers in Africa by The PYNE awards and most recently in 2022 as 100 most powerful people in Africa Hospitality by the International Hospitality Institute.