Most executives have a speciality. Alex Goma has a continent. Over a career spanning more than 30 years and six African countries, he has led sales forces, rebuilt struggling brands, run a listed company’s consumer division, and stepped into the seat of COO of one of Nigeria’s largest telecoms. His story is not a straight line; it is a masterclass in how commercial strategy, executed with discipline, can change businesses.
MBA students at Miva Open University are learning from someone who has not just studied these concepts but has also staked P&Ls on them.
In This Post
A Foundation Across Two Disciplines
Mr Alex Goma studied biochemistry at the University of Port Harcourt, graduating in 1989, and in 2016—nearly three decades into a successful career—he earned a law degree from the University of London International Programmes. Biochemistry is clearly not the most obvious starting point for a marketing career, but it is a discipline that values structured thinking, evidence, and cause-and-effect reasoning. These qualities translate naturally into strategic business leadership. His decision to return to formal study, nearly three decades into a successful career, further reflects a commitment to continuous learning and the intellectual curiosity that often distinguishes exceptional business leaders.
Together, the two degrees give Mr Alex Goma an unusual combination: the analytical rigour of a scientist and the precision of a lawyer. Both come in handy when you are trying to read a market.
A Career Spanning Sectors and Borders
Alex Goma began his career at the operational level and built his experience step by step. He started in 1991 at Highland Bottling Company Ltd as a quality control assistant, where he worked on product quality analysis, syrup preparation, and production supervision. In 1992, he joined Leventis Stores as a store manager, where he gained firsthand experience in retail operations, customer engagement, and frontline sales management.
He later joined Procter & Gamble, where he held several roles across Nigeria and other African markets. These included Sales Representative, Unit Sales Manager, Customer Marketing Manager for West Africa, Fabric Care Category Manager in Egypt, District Manager in Ghana and parts of Nigeria, and Country Manager for Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. Working across these different markets helped him develop deep experience in sales, distribution, marketing, and regional business operations.
After leaving P&G, he joined British American Tobacco, where he became Head of Trade Marketing and Distribution and later Country Manager. In 2007, he moved to Guinness Nigeria Plc as Sales Director. During a particularly difficult period for the company, he led the turnaround of a struggling 200-person sales team by focusing on clarity, discipline, and team motivation.
In 2010, he joined PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc and spent nearly a decade in several senior leadership positions, including Managing Director, Corporate Strategy and External Affairs Director, and Executive Director on the board.
He later became Managing Director and CEO of Grand Cereals Limited, a subsidiary of UAC of Nigeria Plc, before serving as Acting Chief Operating Officer at Globacom Ltd. He stepped away from full-time corporate leadership in 2023.
Today, Alex Goma works as a consultant, advisor, teacher, and public speaker. He serves on advisory and corporate boards, including AMT Digital Nigeria, Edusko.com, Tomato Jos Ltd, and KK Leasing Ltd. He is also Executive in Residence at Miva Open University and Lagos Business School, where he mentors and teaches future business leaders.
The Person Behind the Track Record
People who know Alex Goma commend him as a man of integrity. That consistency between personal values and professional decisions is not incidental. It is, in many ways, the through-line of his entire career.
Beyond the corporate world, Alex Goma has spent considerable energy giving back. Since 2010, he has facilitated workshops on sales fundamentals, marketing, and leadership, many of them focused on preparing young graduates for employment. He is passionate about building capacity in Nigerian and African organisations, and about helping people find their footing in the professional world. That passion is not a post-career activity; it has run alongside his executive work for over fifteen years.
Bringing Decades of Experience into the MBA Classroom
As Executive in Residence for MBA8208: Marketing Management and Strategy, Alex Goma brings real business experience into the classroom. He helps students connect marketing theory with the realities of doing business in Nigeria and across Africa.
Over the course of his career, he has launched brands, grown market share, managed pricing and distribution, and rebuilt struggling commercial teams. In class, he uses these experiences to help students think more practically about strategy and decision-making.
His teaching focuses on helping students develop strong commercial judgement—understanding both the opportunities and challenges in a market and learning how to build strategies that work in real business environments.
Why Students Should Learn from Alex Goma
For MBA students interested in marketing, brand management, or commercial leadership, learning from Alex Goma offers practical insights that go beyond textbooks. His experience gives students a clearer understanding of how marketing strategy is developed at the senior leadership level and how it is successfully executed in real organisations.
Students also gain valuable lessons on building and leading strong commercial teams, drawn from his experience across multiple companies and industries. Rather than focusing only on theory, his teaching highlights the everyday realities of leadership, decision-making, and execution.
Another important advantage is his deep understanding of African markets. He helps students understand how consumer behaviour, infrastructure, and distribution challenges across Africa often differ from the Western business examples commonly found in textbooks.
Above all, his approach to leadership emphasises values, people, and long-term impact alongside performance. This helps students connect business education with the practical demands of leading and growing organisations in the real world.
The Takeaway
Marketing strategy looks clean on a slide deck. In the real world, it collides with broken distribution networks, shifting consumer behaviour, board-level politics, and teams that need to believe in the plan before they can execute it. Alex Goma has spent 30 years navigating exactly that terrain, and he is bringing every hard-won lesson into the Miva MBA.
If you are serious about building a career in marketing and commercial leadership, this is the kind of room you want to be in.
Join the Miva MBA and learn, practically, how to build and win markets from one of Nigeria’s most respected commercial leaders.