Pastor Bukky (Mary) was born in one of the most deprived areas in Nigeria, Surulere, Lagos to be precise. In pursuit of a better standard of living, her parents relocated to London in 1996. Although it was a different country entirely, she still ended up still living in a deprived borough in London- Hackney. Hackney was, at that time, a borough with the highest number of teenage pregnancies, unemployment, and crime rate in London; a borough where it was very likely that a young girl of her age, demographic and background would likely end up being part of the statistic. Her journey took a different turn from the trajectory it was headed when she encountered leadership 18 years ago. Mary met Pastor Tobi at a time of her life where the pendulum was starting to swing to the side where she would be taken off track and easily influenced and pressured by her peers. Pastor Tobi’s Leadership and Mentorship did much more than put Mary’s life back on track – No! - It surpassed this. His Leadership was able to first transform Mary’s mindset and outlook on how she saw herself, whilst simultaneously challenging her mediocre aspirations. He was able to see beyond the 17-year-old, ultra emotional, young girl at the time. Rather, he saw that she would one day be an industry leader and more. 

Mary studied Law at Queen Mary, University of London, and following her degree, she entered the City of London in 2010. She has held a variety of positions at various international insurance and reinsurance broking companies, culminating in her current role as the Chief Strategy officer of the largest Reinsurance company in the world, part of a fortune 500 company. At her current role, Mary has been instrumental in developing workshops to upskill ethnic minority students and has spearheaded different initiatives, leading to tangible employment opportunities for over 200 young people from a diverse background. Her current role has taken her to 10 countries over the last two years alone with the aim of developing key strategic relationships and exploring collaborative opportunities with other firms and clients. She successfully started DiveIn Nigeria in 2019 – a programme which specifically addresses challenges facing women and young people in the workplace In Nigeria. Since its inception, the programme has reached hundreds of thousands of people across Nigeria.

Mary has received many industry awards, “Rising star” and “Reinsurance professional of the year” award, to name a few.  She has also been featured in many industry news articles and was listed in the Empower Top Ethnic minority Future Leader Role Model – Powered by yahoo finance in 2020. Mary is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute, the Next Generation Leadership Council (which is part of TheCityUK) and is a Vice President at the Insurance Institute of London.

She has recently launched a mobile app and web-based platform called The Insurance Community (TIC). TIC’s aim is to be a one-stop global digital insurance industry platform that brings together students, insurance professionals, insurance organisations, professional and government bodies into one digital space. TIC will digitise and unify the insurance industry as a whole and will make the sector more accessible to new entrants  and inspire innovation.

Mary has been a part of the Nxtion family for close to two decades and has remained in the position of playing the keyboard for that same duration of time. She has certainly shown discipline and consistency in what she does corporately and within the Nxtion family. Her journey so far is certainly not how she thought her life would pan out when she was 17. It is safe to say that in following her leader, Pastor Tobi, she has certainly exceeded all her expectations and more. Certainly, and without a doubt, Pastor Bukky made the right decision to follow wholeheartedly.