Professor Gregory Ikechukwu Ibe

Professor Gregory Ikechukwu Ibe, the Nigerian academic, industrialist and politician best known as the founder of Gregory University in Uturu, Abia State, died on 18 October 2026 at the age of 63 after what his family described as a prolonged illness. His death was announced the following day in a statement from the royal family of his father, HRH Eze Cyril Ibe, Okwelube I of Amaokwe Achara Autonomous Community, and was met with an outpouring of tributes from educators, politicians and alumni across Abia State and beyond.

Ibe was born on 10 December 1963 in Kaduna, Nigeria, to parents who hailed from Uturu in Abia State. He began his working life as an entrepreneur before moving into academia, eventually earning a doctorate in management and entrepreneurship. He went on to build a career that spanned business, education and public service, becoming a professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and a prominent advocate for expanding access to private tertiary education in Nigeria.

He was most widely known as the founder, proprietor and Chancellor of Gregory University, Uturu, a private Christian institution he established in 2012 with approval from Nigeria's National Universities Commission. The university grew into one of the country's fastest growing private universities, with a focus on research, medical science, innovation and entrepreneurship, and it became the centrepiece of his efforts to widen educational opportunity in the south east of Nigeria. Beyond the university, he ran Skill 'G' Limited and founded Innov8 Hub in Abuja, a startup incubation centre, and his companies supplied laboratory and technical equipment to tertiary institutions across the country.

Ibe also stepped into politics, contesting the 2023 Abia State governorship election as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Although he did not win the race, the campaign reinforced his public profile as a philanthropist who had already built a reputation for funding scholarships and community development projects in his home state. He was widely credited with using his personal wealth to support less privileged students and to invest in education and human capacity development in Abia State and the wider south east region.

News of his death prompted tributes describing him as a distinguished academic, administrator, philanthropist, entrepreneur and educationist who had dedicated his life to expanding access to education and serving his community. His family said that through Gregory University, Skill 'G' Limited, Innov8 Hub and his other initiatives, he had touched thousands of lives and left an enduring legacy in Nigerian education and community development. He is survived by six children and seven grandchildren. As of this writing, the exact cause of his illness has not been made public and funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.