Patrick Nnadozie Ezeala (PADDY EZEALA), the best graduating student in French from the University of Calabar, Nigeria in 1990 also holds a Masters Degree in English and Literary Studies from the same university.  He has made remarkable strides in the field of communication, conservation and sustainable development, advocacy and administration. He has been in the forefront of developing outstanding environment-related communications and management strategies for many organizations. He is one of the most prominent development communication specialists and conservationists in Nigeria as well as a social justice advocate and commentator on national issues in Nigeria and across West Africa.

A highly analytical mind and strategic thinker, Mr. Ezeala is a prolific writer. He has to his credit several published articles and interviews on various issues including the environment, sustainable development, politics, and economy. He was one of the leaders of some of the campaigns of Oxfam America on issues of extractive industries, social justice, climate change and food security in West Africa and response to humanitarian crises. This position and its responsibilities exposed him to more profound understanding of the development challenges in Africa and underpinning injustices. He has also been editor of several publications.

A tested corporate communications specialist, he developed the communications strategy for the West Africa Regional Office of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire in 1999, the communications plan for the West Africa Marine Eco-region of WWF in Dakar, Senegal in 2002 and the West Africa Regional Communications Strategy for Oxfam America in 2010. He also contributed immensely in developing the communication strategy for the response to West Africa Sahel food crisis in 2012 among others.   He was central to organizing a benefit concert in November 2012 to raise funds for communities in the Northern Sahel region of Senegal affected by food crisis. The concert featured Baaba Maal, Pape Diouf, Coumba Gawlo seck and other international musicians. He deeply understands the undercurrents of widespread poverty and inequality in Africa. His organizational and leadership skills have never been in question.

Mr. Ezeala is widely travelled across Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and North America and has attended numerous training programs across the world including those on advanced writing and media relations, photography, radio program production, public speaking, and campaigns and advocacy leadership. He has been vastly trained in team leadership and time management. He has also attended the ‘Leadership Communication’ program of the Harvard University, Division of Continuing Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and was named in the year 2015 by Vanguard Newspaper as one of the fifty most outstanding alumni of the University of Calabar. He consulted for the Ford Foundation on the promotion of democracy in West Africa using the 2015 presidential elections in Ghana as a springboard. He is also a consultant for the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership of UNICEF. Mr. Ezeala is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC) and a Certified Management Consultant (CMC); as well as a Life Fellow of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF). He is currently the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Development Agenda, a magazine on local and international development issues.