By Ignatius Chukwu
A Nigerian finance and management expert, Rivers-born Dr Leesi Gabriel Gborogbosi, has been nominated in the ‘Best Conference Paper Award’ at a global body.
Dr Gborogbosi, an ex-Shell finance staff member, is leading a consortium of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), foundations, and consultants.
Gborogbosi has been making waves in the field of strategic management with his groundbreaking research. He has multiple masters degrees in different fields of Management and Finance.
Over the course of 26 years at Shell Nigeria, a global oil & gas company, prior to founding ‘Rivers of Our Dreams Initiative’, Gborogbosi served in a variety of leadership and managerial roles, including most recently as finance manager, a portfolio of major capital projects.
Before that, he was deputy business finance manager (oil production); knowledge management advisor; finance consulting lead; and deputy head, corporate budgeting. He was also a member of the corporate strategy, planning, budget, and reporting team.
As a nominee for the ‘Best Conference Paper Award’ at the Strategic Management Society’s Annual International Conference, Gborogbosi has been recognized for his contributions to the field.
The Strategic Management Society is a professional society for the advancement of strategic management, with members from over 80 different countries.
The society holds an annual meeting at various sites around the world, providing its members with opportunities to make lasting contributions that shape the future of strategic management scholarship and practice.
Experts say one of the ways in which the Strategic Management Society recognizes excellence in the field of strategic management is through its awards and honors program.
The Best Conference Paper Award is thus presented each year to honour the best paper presented at the SMS Annual International Conference.
BusinessDay gathered that only a small percentage of all conference papers submitted are nominated for awards, with nominations based on the soundness of conceptual development, originality, and application of appropriate methodology.
Gborogbosi’s conference papers have been nominated for the ‘Best Conference Paper Award’ twice, in 2015 and 2017.
Speaking to BusinessDay, the expert said in 2015, his paper “Middle Managers Early Collaboration in Strategy Execution: Impacts Of First Mover,” was recommended for inclusion in the conference program and nominated for the award.
The paper was co-authored with Carl Joachim Kock of IE Business School. Two years later, in 2017, Gborogbosi and Kock were again nominated for the award for their paper; “Walking Together: Social License to Operate Strategy in Firms’ Collaboration with Social Movements”.
In addition to being recognized for his research, Gborogbosi took on leadership roles within the Strategic Management Society.
During the 35th Annual International Conference in Denver, USA, in 2015, he was appointed to chair Session 134 on Leading Change Implementation Processes.
In 2018, it was further gathered, Gborogbosi was again a member of the Strategic Management Society’s Special Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, with William Bogner of Georgia State University as the chair.
This committee was responsible for providing the Strategic Management Society Board of Directors with an audit of inclusiveness in its activities.
Gborogbosi’s contributions to the field of strategic management are said to have been significant, and his nomination for the ‘Best Conference Paper Award’ is seen as a testament to the quality of his research.
Experts say as the field of Strategic Management continues to grow and evolve, it is researchers like Gborogbosi who are believed to be pushing the boundaries and advancing our understanding of this important area.
