Residence United Kingdom | Nationality Nigerian | |
 | ||
Titles General counsel, Company secretary | ||
Climbing mountains funke abimbola tedxroyaltunbridgewells
Funke Abimbola is the general counsel and company secretary for Roche UK. She is of Nigerian descent. Abimbola is a public speaker and multi award-winning solicitor. She joined Roche UK in the year 2012 as Managing Counsel and rose to the present position in the year 2015. She attended Newcastle University to study law. She had a son while working with Campbell Hooper. She works as a volunteer in the area of education, fundraising for cancer research and economic regeneration.
Contents
- Climbing mountains funke abimbola tedxroyaltunbridgewells
- Funke abimbola session 1
- Early life and education
- Career
- References
Funke abimbola session 1
Early life and education
Abimbola comes from a family of medical doctors. She did not study medicine because of her fear for “pains and blood”. She obtained her law degree from Newcastle University. She came to Nigeria in the mid-1990s to sit for Nigeria Bar examination. Abimbola became a mother at the age of 28 years while working with Campbell Hooper. In the year 2000, she qualified as Solicitor in-house. She lost her dad in the year 2012 to cancer.
Career
Abimbola is the most senior black solicitor for Roche’s pharmaceutical operations in the UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta. She qualified as solicitor in-house in 2000.
She went to Nigeria for the preparation for the Nigerian Bar examination. While there, she worked with F. O. Akinrele & Co.
After her return to the UK from Nigeria in the mid-1990s, she worked with Wembley plc where she qualified as a corporate/commercial lawyer. She later moved to Campbell Hooper where she became a solicitor. In 2012 she joined Roche Uk with the position of Managing Counsel (UK and Ireland). She also served as UK Data Protection Officer. In December 2015, she became the general counsel and company secretary of the same organisation.
She encountered challenges securing an entry level job in the UK. According to First 100 Years, "I found it extremely difficult to secure an entry-level position when I finished the QLTT (now QLTS) transfer test and needed to gain experience before qualification. To get my foot in the door, I drew up a list of the top 100 law firms specialising in corporate law and did the same with the top 50 in-house teams. I then proceeded to cold-call the heads of department at all 150 organisations. This led to several interviews, including one with a major, fully listed PLC. At that interview, the head of legal (who is English but whose partner is of Asian descent) asked me if I thought my race had been a factor in me not getting interviews with other organisations. That was, honestly, the first time I had even considered race as being something that could inhibit my progress. Thankfully, I was offered a role by her and was able to qualify as a solicitor in-house."
She founded International Woman lawyer/leader life sciences network. Abimbola is a strong advocate of corporate and social adversity. As a public speaker and law practitioner, she was recognized and won many awards for her work. In 2013 she was featured in Diversity League Table publication as one of the Black Solicitors. In 2014, she was nominated for a National Diversity Award, and in the same year she was nominated for the Law Society Excellence Awards. In 2015, she won a Positive Role Model Award. In 2010, she was appointed governor of Uxbridge College, London, on a four-year term.