Itia Otabor is the Director of Strategy at the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), where he coordinates the implementation of the Centre’s Strategic Plan (2024–2028). His portfolio includes overseeing strategic alignment across all programmes, managing the Centre’s certification partnership with the Institute of Strategic Management Nigeria, Chartered (ISMNC), and providing concurrent oversight of Elections programming, Parliamentary Affairs, and the Centre’s Volunteer Corps.
Under his leadership, Centre LSD secured licensed operator status with ISMNC and successfully implemented the STAGE Project (Oct 2023 – Mar 2024), which contributed to the historic conduct of the Anambra State Local Government Election in 2024 — the first since 2014. Itia also pioneered the Centre’s International Strategic Management Retreats, hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa (Twice), and Kigali, Rwanda (5 times) since 2022.
A serial institution builder, Itia is the Founding President of Citia Associates, a strategic management consulting firm. His previous roles include Director for Membership Services and Chairman, Financial Services/General Consultancy Trade Group at the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce (PHCCIMA), and the former Permanent Representative of the World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME). He hosted an Annual Executive Leadership Retreat Programme in Johannesburg South Africa from 2010- 2018. September 2019, he hosted in Abuja (for the first and so far, only time in Nigeria), The International Small Business Congress (ISBC).
Academically, Itia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Ibadan and a Master’s in Strategic Management from Ogun State University. He is currently a Doctoral candidate in Management Science at Kezian Business School, Mumbai, India, and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School’s Disruptive Strategy program. He is also a Course 49 graduate of the Policy, Leadership, and Strategy Programme at the National Institute for Policy & Strategic Studies, Kuru.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Strategic Management, Nigeria (ISMN), and the Mentoring and Career Development Institute (MCDI), and a founding member of Learning and Development Network International (LDNI), where he is a Certified Learning & Development Specialist.
A devoted family man, Itia is married to Ngozi, and they are blessed with two children, Jemima and Joel. He pastors the Victory Parish, Galadimawa, Abuja, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), and thrives in roles that allow him to channel his diverse experiences toward organizational growth and societal transformation.
