Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, CON, is currently the Chairman/CEO of Susman and Associates (S&A) Limited. He has a BSc, MSc, and PhD in Economics. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Economic Society, the Chartered Institute of Bankers, and the Society for Corporate Governance of Nigeria.

Dr Usman was the managing director of NAL Merchant Bank between 1995 and 1999 before he was appointed as a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He was in that position between 1999 and 2007. Dr Usman was Nigeria’s minister of finance between 2007 and 2009. He later served as the minister of national planning from 2009 to 2013.

He has over 35 years of professional experience in Management Consulting, Economics Advisory, Strategic Planning and Business Strategy, Corporate Finance Advisory and Financial Modelling, Research, Data Collection and Analysis, Managerial Finance and Due Diligence, Strategy and Leadership Development, Banking, Risk and Project Management, Policy Formulation, Implementation, and Analysis. Recently, through his company Susman and Associates, he has been involved in designing a short- to medium-term strategic plan for the states in north-eastern Nigeria and designing and implementing a comprehensive performance monitoring and evaluation system for the Lagos State Government.

He has also undertaken case studies on the failure in the Nigerian Banking Industry and assessed recent mergers and acquisitions for the NDIC. He conducted a study on the Voice and Voting Power (VVP) of the Minority Shareholder in the Nigerian Capital Market and obtained the principle commitment of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Corporate Affairs Commission, and the Bureau of Public Enterprises. He was involved in conceptualising, organising and inaugurating the Nigeria Electricity Market Summit Group (NEMSG) that brings key stakeholders regularly together to discuss critical issues in the Nigerian Electricity Market.