Dr. Ngozi Chianakwalam is the Honourable Chairman / Chief Judge of the Investments and Securities Tribunal, Nigeria (The Tribunal). Her previous positions signal a career built on solid career progression in various capacities that collectively provided a strong and diverse foundation for her work as a senior-level jurist in a specialized court with a complex and technically challenging caseload. Those positions, taken chronologically, include state counsel in Imo State Ministry of Justice; rising to Assistant Director of Civil Litigation in 1987; Deputy Director and Director of prosecutions in Abia State in 1993; Solicitor General of Abia State; and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice of the same Abia State, Nigeria. She served as the Registry Director and Acting Registrar General at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) which is a body responsible for registering and regulating the operations of Nigerian-based companies. Prior to the computerization of the CAC’s processes Dr. Ngozi Chianakwalam, came up with a blueprint which fast-tracked manual registration of companies within 5days.

Dr Chianakwalam graduated from the University of Ife, Ile Ife, Nigeria with an LL.B and was subsequently called to the Nigerian Bar. She also earned an M.B.A. in Management Technology from the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, Nigeria and a Ph.D. in Criminal Law from Rockville University in California, USA. She has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom, since 2003 and the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, Nigeria since 2005. Dr. Chianakwalam who is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association and the International Federation of Female Lawyers, is also a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and the American Management Association.

Chief Judge Ngozi Chianakwalam has handled several high profile civil and criminal cases, inclusive of Election Petition matters, and has appeared in all courts in Nigeria, including the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in her 35 years of post call to the Nigerian Bar, prior to her appointment as the Honourable Chairman / Chief Judge of the Tribunal.

Dr. Chianakwalam was the Principal Partner of Legal Standard Consulting, President, Sunctoria Limited, President, Change and Reorientation Mission (CHARM), Contributing Editor, Standard Voice and New Democrat Newspaper and an author.  She has also received various Honorary Awards.
She has several in- house and external associates who are specialists in various aspects of the Law. In addition to Legal Practice, the consultancy conducts Seminars, Workshops and Trainings.

Dr. Ngozi Chianakwalam who is a firm believer in capacity building has benefited from numerous Leadership and Management trainings, attended,  participated and delivered papers in several, seminars, workshops and capacity development fora, both locally and internationally. She is blessed with three daughters and a grandson.

Her leadership of Investment and Securities Tribunal has established Dr. Ngozi Chianakwalam as a committed advocate to promoting growth and development of Nigeria’s legal system and economy through the Investment and Securities Tribunal adjudicatory role over investments and capital disputes as provided by the Investments and Securities Act.  Investor’s wariness of recklessness in market operations, under Dr. Ngozi’s leadership of the Investment and Securities Tribunal, have been greatly reduced through the Tribunal’s guarantee to market investors of the IST Act’s fast-tracked, three-month adjudicatory process that addresses investor complaints in record time; a factor which previously formed a challenge to Nigeria’s market growth.