Honeywell Group Chairman, renowned investor and entrepreneur, Dr. Ayoola Oba Otudeko, who will be 70 on August 18, has opted for a quiet, low-key celebration.
Otudeko has requested that no media advertisements or messages of any kind be published to congratulate him; neither would he welcome any public event organised to coincide with his birthday.
The billionaire businessman has requested that to further promote his ideals of philanthropy and giving back to society, those who plan to send gifts or media messages should channel the funds to Footprints Occupational Training Centers (FOTCs), an initiative of the Oba Otudeko Foundation (OOF). The patriarch has expressed that the upcoming birthday be celebrated with thanksgiving and touching lives in select concrete ways.
The Oba Otudeko Foundation (OOF) is a private, not-for-profit organisation inaugurated in 2003 as a vehicle for public-spirited programmes.
It is “committed to programmes aimed at ensuring that Nigeria keeps pace in the technologies and competencies that will define the twenty-first century and beyond, through people empowerment, capacity and institutions building.”
The vision to implement Footprints Occupational Training Centres model was informed by the need to respond to the challenges posed by youth unemployment and dearth of essential and much needed skilled manpower in our country.
Otudeko is an astute and highly-successful Nigerian investor and entrepreneur whose domestic and foreign interests cut across diverse sectors of the economy. Professionally, he is a Chartered Banker, Chartered Corporate Secretary and a Chartered Accountant.
He has attended management courses at several prestigious institutions which include the Harvard Business School; the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Arthur D. Little School of Management and the London Business School.
Otudeko is currently the Chairman of Honeywell Group, Airtel Nigeria and Fan Milk of Nigeria Plc.
He retired as the Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Plc after 12 meritorious years on the board of the bank.
He also served on the boards of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) between September 2006 and August 2009.
He was the 16th President and Chairman of Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
