Adewole Adekunle
(HCIB, FCIA, PhD)

Adekunle is a strategic management expert with extensive experiential background in commercial and mortgage banking, spanning over 25years. He is also an Adjunct Faculty at a world-class Business School where he provides instructions to global co-learners with focus on strategic management, strategic human resources and leadership, organizational behavior and strategy execution. He has built and managed teams in matrix style fast paced business environments. As a Business Development Executive with acumen in business growth, Adekunle has leveraged on business turnaround strategies to rescue failing teams and businesses and turned them to highest performing teams and industry leaders in record time. With an uncanny ability to significantly improve team and individual performance, his prowess in improving productivity with very low attrition rate over the years, has distinguished him as a sought after Senior Executive. His earlier career started with Banks like Omega Bank Plc, Standard Trust Bank (Now UBA Plc) and Broad Bank.

The varied experiences and trainings have exposed Adewole to the different aspects of Banking, the workings of firms and marketplace ordinances. Adewole joined the Banking industry in January 1998 and has since functioned in several areas including operations, corporate banking (large corporates), credit collections and recovery, retail and commercial banking, structured finance and public sector business. Adekunle later joined Equitorial Trust Bank in 2006 and remained with the Bank after the merger with Sterling Bank till 2018, when he voluntarily retired on General Management Cadre to pursue higher studies. As the Group Head of Credit Collections and Recovery of Sterling Bank in 2014, he consistently ensured that the Bank was the industry leader in recovery for three consecutive years while he superintended the Group, ensuring a 12.3% annual recovery rate which was significantly higher than the 4.05% industry average. Upon redeployment as Head of Large Corporates Group, he managed a balance sheet of circa $310m. Whilst in Structured Finance, he also delivered on several projects including Osun bond and sukkuk, rights issuance programs, assets acquisition and development of several major infrastructure. After his extensive educational expedition, Adekunle was called to lead the transformation of the then Omoluabi Mortgage Bank, now Livingtrust Mortgage Bank Plc. Although he took over an underperforming mortgage bank, Livingtrust Mortgage Bank unarguably became the most profitable listed mortgage bank in Nigeria under his watch as the Managing Director, in less than 3years.

Adekunle is a lifelong learner. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Applied Metereology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure. He earned an MBA in Business Administration from the University of Ado-Ekiti. Thereafter, he proceeded to the Metropolitan School of Business & Management in the United Kingdom, where he had a Master of Business Administration in Finance. In his multidisciplinary quest, he also earned a Master in Business Law from the Metropolitan School of Business & Management, United Kingdom. Adekunle holds a Master of Philosophy in Business Administration from Babcock University. He earned his PhD in Business Administration (Strategic Management), also from Babcock University. So far, he has published five (5) peer reviewed articles on Organizational Behaviour in leading academic journals. In addition, he holds a Certificate in Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies from Harvard University, USA. He is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School, where he attended the Advanced Management Program and INSEAD Business School where he attended the Global Management Program. Interestingly, Adekunle also bagged a Certificate in Urban Policing and Behavioral Psychology (Superintendent Course) from the Police Training School. He is an honorary senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Administration. Adekunle is an accomplished and award-winning professional.

Adekunle’s passion for excellence has further taken him to Oxford University’s Said Business School on a one year engagement with a cohort of other business leaders from 28 nations and 7 continents, where they are re-inventing best practices in Organizational Leadership. Adekunle’s unusual purpose-driven leadership approach to business has been acknowledged far and wide. In 2022, he was recognized by the foremost financial tabloid in Nigeria as a “World Class Professional who made the difference in 2022” and was described as a strategic thinker and doer who contributes to national growt