Ify Okoli-Watson

Ify Okoli-Watson is an England and Wales-qualified Solicitor (admitted in 1994) who has held commercial roles including Chief of Staff to the CEO of an International Investment Bank. She specializes in Employment Law, Conduct Risk Compliance and Strategy Execution, with a proven track record of managing diverse teams and senior stakeholders across multiple jurisdictions. She also has in-depth experience of the news, media and the financial services industries.

Effective, 2021 to date Ify has been the Associate General Counsel to Facebook, London, UK with the responsibility of providing global employment law counsel and strategic legal advice on international labour and employment legal matters to support the company’s goals.

Between 2018-2011, she was the Global Employment Law Counsel for Reuters news and media providing centrally coordinated legal support on a range of matters in over 200 jurisdictions to ensure a consistent, commercial and cost-effective approach that is aligned with local laws and practices.

Her career has also seen her emerge as Director, Head: Conduct Risk Compliance EME Barclays Bank Plc (Oct 2016-Nov 2018) London, responsible for managing Conduct Risk and providing strategic direction to the Investment Bank in collaboration with Product Advisory Compliance, Group Compliance and Front Office teams.

She was Chief of Staff /Head: Rest of Africa Integration and Enablement Johannesburg, South Africa Barclays Africa (Oct 2014 – Sept 2016), providing support to the Chief Executive Officer, Barclays Africa (Retail & Business Banking) covering operations in 11 countries across Africa with over 8000 employees.

She is International Corporate Co-Chair of the American Bar Association, Labour and Employment Law Committee and Social Media Committee Co-Chair with interest in long distance running – marathons.