The CEO of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, has been feared dead in a helicopter crash in California.
He was reportedly on board with about five others believed to be his wife, son, and Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the group chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (NGX Group), when the helicopter crashed.
Sources said the chopper was headed to Las Vegas when it crashed near a border city between Nevada and California on Friday night.
Here are things to know about Access Holdings CEO, Herbert Wigwe
1. Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe CON was born on August 15, 1966.
2. He was a Nigerian banker and entrepreneur.
3. He was the CEO of Access Holdings Plc, traded as Access Corporation until his death.
4. Herbert was the Group Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank plc, one of Nigeria’s top five banking institutions, after succeeding his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede in January 2014 till April 2022.
5. Wigwe has a degree in accountancy from the University of Nigeria, an MA in Banking and Finance from the University College of North Wales (now Bangor), an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London.
6. He was also an alumnus of the Harvard Business School Executive Management Program.
7. Wigwe started his career at Coopers & Lybrand, Lagos, as a management consultant, later qualifying as a chartered accountant.
8. After a stint at Capital Bank, he joined GTBank where he spent over a decade working in corporate and institutional banking, rising to become the executive director in charge of institutional banking.
9. In 2002, Wigwe and his business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede bought into what was then a small commercial bank, Access Bank—at the time, the 65th largest of the 89 banks in the country.
10. On February 10, 2024, he was reportedly involved in chopper crash that killed him, his wife, his son and a yet-to-be-identified Nigerian.