Boss Of The Week
TUNJI OLUGBODI: A STRONG FORCE IN ADVERTISING
Published
5 years agoon
By
EricOne of the greatest achievements of anyone in the creative industry is to see your words come to life, your ideas shape nationwide conversation or turn an innocuous product into a mega brand.
In the marketing communications industry, Our BossOf The Week, Tunji Olugbodi has conquered many territories as a warrior who thrives on taking on battles that are ideas and innovation driven.
Indeed, he has chosen to fearlessly take up space in a universe that that has not made any space for him and in addition, the power of his talented makes space for others.
Highly respected as a worthy member of the top echelon of the profession, Olugbodi, a Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria has used his experience, expertise and professional prowess to such wonderful use that he is one of the go-to experts in the industry today.
Born to a middle class family in Surulere in Lagos, his father Joshua Olugbodi was an Executive at the Central Bank of Nigeria while his mum was an enterprising and resourceful business woman who instilled the spirit of entrepreneurship into him and his siblings.
As a strong-willed woman, she held the home front together and did all sorts of legitimate businesses to support and augment the family earnings. Life was simple and authentic.
Tunji, the second of nine children had his primary school education at Salvation Army Primary School, Surulere; before proceeding to Ejigbo Baptist High School, Osun state. He at the time had a very small stature that made him vulnerable in the school. As a child, he was an easy going lad who loved to read a lot and also watch TV to learn, he had great love for art and started acting from his nursery school days through primary and secondary school. From the get go, he had a soft spot for the creative.
It was no surprise therefore that when it was time to embark on tertiary education, he decided to study English at the Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye, now Olabisi Onabanjo University. it became very pronounced as he studied English with a strong bias for acting and directing. At the University, he was very active and his personal motto“Nothing ventured, nothing had” drove him to success in his studies.
His original intention after finishing top of his class was to go back to the university as a teacher but fate had a different plan for the trajectory of his life.
As a student he was a freelancer for The Guardian, he was submitting different articles and they were being published and so after school, it was easy for him to get immediate employment as a Reporter and Sub-editor.
After sometime at The Guardian, he became disillusioned, he felt gagged and inhibited as a journalists because despite the tremendous access he had, he was unable to write as he wished and to worsen matters, the pay was not much.
According to him, “To be honest, I became quickly disillusioned with the privileged access the media gave me to view what I call the “soul” of the society. First, I realised that you cannot even write or talk about all you know about what’s going on. Second, I was experiencing diminishing returns in terms of job satisfaction but I was proud to have been part of the strong flagship of media, as The Guardian was then known”. He was with The Guardian till 1989, a year after he joined from his youth service where he taught at Tiley Gyado College; where he met his wife and they got married two years later.
As a sojourner of arts that he is, who is always open and willing to experiment. He wanted to explore the wider platform of information management and content dissemination. He had to switch from journalism to public relations because journalism requires a high sense of discretion and circumspection that can be potentially negative alongside with the fact that journalists were not getting fair deal in overall terms and they were tagged as “necessary evils” that must be kept close and micro managed. He joined Promoserve Ltd, one of the leading agencies then which was owned by the inimitable Kehinde Adeosun; working with the agency according to him was:
“A rare privilege since it was the happening profession then, getting into Promoserve was a big deal back then. I remember that it was keenly contested. There were three positions for which over 400 of us competed. There were several layers of written and oral interviews and a final meeting with the MD. I considered myself lucky and was very relieved at the success. Promoserve was one of the happening agencies then. And being on Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, meant we belong in the ‘Madison Avenue‘ of Nigerian advertising. All the leading agencies were located within a two-three kilometer radius of each other; Bode Thomas, Sabiu Ajose, Eric Moore and Adeniran Ogunsanya streets. There was Grant Advertising, Rosabel Ltd, Insight Communications, Centrespread Ltd and others that belonged in that cluster.”
Due to his hard work and relentless spirit, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Business Manager in less than two years, he also won the staff of the year award before finding his way to Oceanic bank where he was the Head of Corporate communications.
Promoserve Ltd gave him the opportunity to cut his teeth, Prima Garnet gave him the opportunity to sharpen it and offered a platform for professional validation where he started as a senior Manager and rose to the post of Executive Director within 16 years before he exit the company to start his own Agency which he named Verdant Zeal.
He described Verdant Zeal as a God-inspired vision that is growing its brand across West Africa in a pragmatic manner. The company’s first project was in 1989 for Access Bank; Verdant Zeal was set on a concept called OTOBOS acronym for On Time, On Budget, On Strategy; which inspires and drives their trajectory to discover, develop and nurture their exclusive narratives.
He built Verdant Zeal on the platform to benchmark themselves on continuous basis through thought leadership with the vision to enhance capacity through skills validation and acquisition, to collaborate and build strategic relationships that benefit clients with core values which he called BACPAC- Bravery, Agility, Curiosity, Passion, Accountability and Collaboration. The agency specializes majorly in Branding Consultancy, Public Relations Management, Media Consulting, Digital Marketing and Events Activation.
For the last twelve years, Verdant Zeal a multidisciplinary business solutions provider has been playing a pivotal role in agenda setting and shaping conversations with its “innovention” series.
The lecture series which ties extensively with the company’s business scope-branding and global competitiveness is aimed at setting agenda for futuristic needs of the nation.
According to Olugbodi “The concept will bring forward original ideas geared towards bringing about change in all sectors of the economy.
For him, media and communication is very critical to Nigeria’s development because the perception about the country is substantially based on media reports.
This series is a clear testament that Olugbodi is not a businessman who is all about profit but a passionate patriot who believes strongly that a more businesses will thrive if the nation as whole finds its footing and gets moving in the right direction.
Olugbodi, an Executive Board Member of AAAN and pioneer chairman of LAIF (Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival) never allows issues to catch him by surprise. He prides himself as a very good planner; when Plan A fails, there is always a Plan B to make sure that it comes to realization.
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Dr Stephen Akintayo: Leading Gtext Homes to Strategic Marketing Advantage
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2 weeks agoon
March 17, 2024By
EricHOW DID YOU COME ABOUT THE RELATIVE HUMILITY YOU ARE TODAY ASSOCIATED WITH?
I advise young people who rush into politics to build a name, if you do something solid the politicians will beg you because they know you have the solution, the capacity, and the answers. For me, I am very well positioned globally, growing my business is very important to me, supporting people in government across the world. We want to start partnering with people in government but we want to make sure our record is clean, our stories are clear because if you do not tell your stories, others will tell their own and their own will become the truth so we need to tell our own.
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Adedeji Adeleke: Celebrating a Philanthropist at 67
Published
3 weeks agoon
March 10, 2024By
EricBy Eric Elezuo
At 67, he still remains one of the most sought after personalities with the milk of human kindness. His philanthropy reverberates across the length and breadth of the African continent, and with a net-worth of over 1.7 billion in United States of American dollars, it is not hard to imagine that the erudite scholar and reputed oil and real estate magnate, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, is a force to reckon with in the Nigerian socio-political and economic terrain.
To many, he is the hitherto unknown ‘Baba Olowo’, as represented by his son, David Adeleke, in his hit song, Emi Omo Baba Olowo, to many others, he is just the father of one of Nigeria’s successful musicians, Davido, and to many others, he is the pathfinder that has helped in paving a path of fruitfulness for the Adeleke family in particular, and the people of Osun State in general.
Ebullient and renowned, Dr. Adedeji Tajudeen Adeleke, a native of Ede in Osun State, was born on March 6, 1957 in Enugu State, to Ayoola Raji Adeleke and Esther Nnenna Adeleke. Growing up with his maternal grandmother, fashioned in him the distinct features of Nigerian-ism thus becoming one of the few Nigerians, who are privileged to savour the true Nigerian originality, boasting of two physical ethnicities – Yoruba and Igbo.
Adeleke’s linage is blessed as his siblings are also movers and shakers of the Nigerian political and economic environments. His elder brother, late Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke, was the first civilian governor of Osun State, and his younger brother, Senator Ademola Adeleke, is the present governor of Osun State.
Fondly called Deji by family members and loved ones, and Chairman by friends and associates, Dr. Adeleke, whose father was a renowned labour leader and activist, in addition to being the Balogun of Ede land and one time Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is many things one.
Tapping from the Igbo background of his beloved mother and the Yoruba originality of his father, Dr. Adeleke has overtime showcased qualities that stood him out as a believer in the oneness of the country, Nigeria.
Dr. Adeleke lived his early life in Enugu, where he developed inert abilities to mastering business craftsmanship, before moving to Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Surulere Lagos, for his primary education. Thereafter, he proceeded to Seventh-Day Adventist Grammar School, Ede where he graduated from in 1975, obtaining his West African School Certificate in flying colours.
His brilliance, coupled with opportunities, created a leeway for him thereafter to proceed to Western Kentucky University in the United States of America where he distinguished himself in academics and other endeavours, and graduating with a Bachelors degree in Finance in 1979.
A thoroughbred lover of education, Adeleke followed up his bachelors degree triumph with an MBA in 1981 and thereafter a Ph.D. in International Business from Pacific Columbia University, Mills Valley, California in 1983. It is not an understatement to say the proverbial ‘baba olowo’ is well read.
Having completed the academic trilogy, and with undisputable qualifications, Adeleke returned to serve his fatherland in the capacity of a Corps member in the National Youth Service Corps scheme; a clarion call he obeyed with all his being as a true Nigerian.
Armed and totally ready to take on the world, Adeleke ventured into the entrepreneurial world, audaciously establishing a drilling company, Pacific Drilling Company Limited which soon became the brainchild of other entrepreneurial ventures, metamorphosing into Pacific Holdings Limited, with a distinct focus on finances and investments in different sectors of the Nigerian economy, which comprises other groups of companies with diverse biases, including Pacific Energy Limited.
An egghead of no mean abilities, Adeleke is one of few academics, who holds double doctoral degrees, as he was privileged to bag a second Ph.D from the University of Phoenix, Arizona USA, where he studiously laboured for his honours.
His lofty academic sojourns have in more ways than one paved the way for him to conquer the competitive world of entrepreneurship. He is also the founder and Chairman Board of Directors of Pacific Merchant Bank Ltd which later became one of the legacy banks in the guise of present day Unity Bank Plc.
Quintessential in all ramifications, Dr. Adeleke is a philanthropist of note as his foundations and establishments speak volumes of his worth, and what he is capable of doing. Among his many foundations, dedicated to the upliftment of mankind, is the Springtime Development Foundation (SDF), a not-for-profit NGO, which has become a vehicle for the awards of scholarships at all levels of education, and distribution of medical assistance to diverse medical units across board; locally and internationally to meet the needs of needy Nigerians.
Adeleke’s SDF is also the brain behind the establishment of the prestigious Adeleke University Ede, where he is the Pro-Chancellor. In addition, Dr. Adeleke sits on the board of various blue chip companies across the globe.
Adedeji Adeleke through the Springtime Development Foundation (SDF) founded Adeleke University in Osun State ede, to ensure less privileged students have access to a quality higher education.
Adeleke is known to be not just a father in words, but highly impactful, consciously and unconsciously imparting his children and any other person that crosses his path with his Midas touch of gold.
It has been said that no one comes his way, and leaves without a meaningful impact in his life. With his SDF tool, not a few lives have witnessed a turnaround.
Dr. Adeleke is blessed with four children, two males and two females named Adewale Adeleke, David Adeleke (Davido), Sharon and Ashley Coco, from his beautiful wife, Veronica, who died in 2003, and many grandchildren. His children are living examples of his paternal influence as they all have carved a veritable niche and influence for themselves in different areas of human endeavours.
His youngest son, Davido, is a world renowned musician and philanthropist, carting away awards after awards in many areas, and luving the life of a real chip off the old block with humongous acts of giving that has left many just wondering.
He also has numerous grandchildren among whom are Imade Adeleke, Hailey Adeleke and the newest twins, who are Davido’s children.
Adeleke is a lover of life, and the good things that come with it. As a result, he owns a Bombardier Challenger 605 Business jet and a Bombardier Global Express 6000 for both classic luxury and ease of movement, as an international businessman, who is constantly on the move.
At 67, Adeleke could be described as an accomplished husband, father, nationalist and entrepreneur.
We salute your dexterity and pray for more of wealth and health and many more years of celebrations. Happy birthday a true legend!
We celebrate you sir!
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Babajide Sanwo-Olu: A Governor and His Many Gracious Strides
Published
4 weeks agoon
March 3, 2024By
EricEarlier, Sanwo-Olu briefly attended Government Demonstration School, Gbaja Surulere before moving to Ijebu-Ife Grammar School, Ogun State to complete his secondary education.
A politician of positive repute, Sanwo-Olu began his political career in 2003, when he was appointed a Special Adviser on Corporate Matters to the then deputy governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro. He was later made the acting Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget until 2007, when he was appointed as the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry by then governor, Bola Tinubu. After the General Elections of 2007, Sanwo-Olu was appointed Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions by Governor Babatunde Fashola. He was later moved to the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2016 as the Managing Director.
Sanwo-olu’s achievements are renewed on a daily basis as a they keep springing up without notice. Some of his notable public sector achievements however, include the supervision of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) privatization projects. He set up and was the Pioneer Board Chairman of Lagos Security Trust Fund. The LAGBUS System and the Control & Command Centre in Alausa Ikeja were subsequently established under his directives.
Sanwo-Olu, like many of his predecessors, has kept faith with the Lagos master plan, and has worked assiduously to maintain and meet the target. He has therefore, been working on different development activities, one of which is road construction across major areas in Lagos state.
In 2020, Sanwo-olu asked that the statue of Fela Kuti that was erected by Akinwunmi Ambode be removed from Allen Avenue in Ikeja, to ease the situation of traffic in that area. However, the statue is said to be relocated to a more convenient area in the State. He commissioned the Oshodi -Abule-Egba BRT Lane amongst other projects in 2020.
Sanwo-olu has worked on the Control & Command Centre in Alausa, which significantly improved the capacity of the security agencies to respond to distress calls in a swift and timely manner.
While under appointment as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSPDC) in 2016, he, as a visionary administrator returned the hitherto struggling organisation to the path of efficiency and profititability. This took him only two years.
He also refocused the organisation to effectively tackle housing deficit in the state, which again validated his credentials as a resourceful leader and problem solver. His valuable experience garnered from executive-level roles in the private and public sectors has not only distinguished him, but also made him a valuable resource to some notable organisations on whose boards he has served
A statement on his website summarized his expected delivery, noting that “It is unexpected that Babajide’s enterprising career in the private sector, defining roles in public service and selfless contributions to the society would not have attracted international recognitions and accolades at home. But as a man attired in modesty, these awards and laurels are encouragements that keep him on the path of service to God and humanity.
“A devout Christian and family-focused man whose marriage to Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu is blessed with lovely children, Mr. Sanwo-Olu, in addition to his love for public speaking, is a member of numerous prestigious clubs, which include Ikoyi Club 1938, the Island Club, Yoruba Tennis Club and the Clear Essence Health Club.”
In 2020, Sanwo-Olu stood like the rock of Gibraltar between the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic and the health of Lagos residents, and was regarded as one of the outstanding governors in the fight against the scourge.
“We must ultimately defeat this virus if we remain vigilant and do not take anything for granted. Stay safe Lagos, your health is important,” the governor was quoted as saying.
In October of the same year, Sanwo-Olu employed his human relations training to quell the EndSARS crises, which had its epicenter in Lagos.
In May 2023, Sanwo-Olu was reelected governor under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeating his closest rival, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) to the second position.
Though his re-election was contested by both Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP) and Olajide Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the tribunal, and up to the Supreme Court, Sanwo-Olu emerged victorious.
With special regards to his litany of achievements, Sanwo-Olu has obtained a variety of awards in his career, both from within the shores of Nigeria and from foreign places. Some of them include:
- Platinum award from the Lagos State Public Service Club.
- 2009 Best in Human Capital Development award from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
- Merit award from the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria.
- Merit award from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management in Nigeria (CIPMN).
- Merit Award from the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN).
- LSDPC Impactful Leadership and Recognition Award.
- Media Nite-Out Award for Best Governor of the Year (2020).
In addition, he is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Directors (IOD), Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), and Fellow of Nigeria Institute of Training and Development (NITAD).
A lot of people have said that the path to Sanwo-Olu’s success stories and achievements lies in his ability to remain a loyal partyman and an astute politician. These have consistently paved the way for his glorious strides. His achievements in Lagos have become a reference point to many other governors in Nigeria.
In today’s Lagos, development, sanitization, security, technological know-how and community coexistence are at top level owing to the direction Sanwo-Olu created, and rooted in his THEME agenda.
Sanwo-Olu, without an iota of doubt, is doing well. It is on this note, we recognize you sir, as the Boss of the week. Congratulations!
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