Chin Okeke
Chinedu ‘Chin’ Okeke is an impresario fueled by the belief that Africa is more than potential and a mission to build.
Chin is the former managing director of Universal Music West Africa and an Entertainment-Entrepreneur of over two decades.
His educational background is as diverse as his music interest, an Old Harrovian, a Law Graduate (LLB) from the University of Bristol, who holds a diploma in Chinese from Tsinghua University and speaks English fluently and French, Spanish and Chinese, conversationally.
Following his education, Chin undertook business training at two Fortune 500 companies; Credit Suisse in New York and the AP Moller Maersk Group in Shanghai the latter of which he completed their Management program upon returning to Nigeria in 2008.
In 2010, Chin founded the Eclipse Brand Agency, a branding and communications company that has developed pioneering entertainment properties and strategies for local brands as well as multinationals like Pepsi, Coke, Redbull, Power Horse, Bollinger, and Nokia to name a few.
In 2013, Chin co-founded Eclipse Live Ltd, a Live event production company focused on bringing live, affordable, and accessible entertainment to the youth of Africa. At Eclipse Live, Chin spearheaded the development of The Gidi Culture Festival in 2014, which has been running for 8 years and is the largest music festival in West Africa.
The Festival has been coined as defining the progression of music and urban youth culture in Africa as it’s known today as the Coachella of Africa.
From inception, the market presented many challenges, especially the lack of infrastructure. Understanding the critical path to launch, Chin and his co-founder, Teme Banigo, developed a number of projects to support bringing their events to life. They developed SeatGate, a B2B white label ticketing solution; MoreLive, a cashless lifestyle app; and Misan, a venue development consultancy.
In 2020, Chin was appointed as the General Manager for Universal Music Nigeria and In January 2021, he was promoted to Managing Director, responsible for the growth and diversification of their West Africa business.
At the end of 2021, Chin departed from Universal and subsequently, Chin has returned to the executive board of Eclipse, responsible for strategy & business development. Chin is a member of the Steering Council for the ILMC Futures Forum and was named on Billboard’s 2021 International Power Players List. He is also a founding Trustee of the ECHO Music and Arts foundation
Chin has spoken at Midem, Social Media Week, and Davos.
He is also an Executive Director of The Wicklow Group with multiple interests in the agriculture value chain and CANVEST Nigeria Limited, a food marketing company that is the agency to McCormick & Ducros in West Africa.