A
fair-minded man; a corporate player; an academic par excellence; an excellent
family man; a man loved by persons from all walks of life and across
boundaries; a devout catholic; a man of integrity; a man with a huge sense of
purpose and dedication; a commanding speaker; a man with an unparalleled
retentive memory; a philanthropist; a board room guru and a selfless volunteer.
These qualities developed over time and have been observed and recognised with
admiration by the oppressed and the poor and by those who believe that there is
no difference between public treasury and personal purse.
Professor Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, who hails from Ibusa in Delta State, was
born on February 6, 1956. He attended the St. Thomas, Kano, Our Lady of Fatima,
Gusau, Christ The King’s College, Onitsha, Loyola College, Ibadan, University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of London and the Indiana University
(Bloomington) Indiana, USA. Prof. Utomi also participated in executive
education programmes such as AMP, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France (1994) and the
CEP, LBS – Lagos Business School (1994), In-company programmes with business
schools in Europe and North America for Volkswagen Managers. (1989/1991),
Management of Human Relations, Management Centre, Europe, Brussels, 1989,
Harvard Business School (Corporate Governance) (2008), and the Kellogg School
(Managing Corporate Boards) (2010).
A fellow of
the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and founding Senior Faculty
of the Lagos Business School-Pan Atlantic University, he was Director of The
Centre For Applied Economics at the Lagos Business School. He has served
in senior positions in government, as an Adviser to the President of Nigeria;
the Private Sector, as Chief Operating Officer for Volkswagen of Nigeria, and
in academia. He is the author of several Management and Public Policy
books including the Award Winning Managing Uncertainty: Competition and
Strategy in Emerging Economies, 1998 and the 2006 book ‘Why Nations are
Poor.’ His academic background covers a range from Policy Economics,
Business Administration, and Political Science to Mass Communication. As
an entrepreneur, he has founded or co-founded companies that are active in
fields including financial services, ICT, Media and Agriculture. He is a
visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
(SAIS).
A
multitasker, he has reached the top in several different endeavours, becoming
one of Nigeria’s top managers in Manufacturing before his 33rd birthday,
reaching a Presidential Advisory position at 27; earning two Master Degrees and
a PhD at 26, a Professorship and global acknowledgement as a leading scholar in
Business, Political Economy and Media Studies in his 40s. His first publication
in a refereed international journal appeared in 1981 in a European Journal,
Gazette. He is perhaps the first candidate for President in Nigeria to be
formally endorsed by such renowned scholars as the Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole
Soyinka and Prof .Sam Aluko among others.
Honoured by
so many professional bodies as a distinguished fellow (including Nigerian
Institute of Public Relations, the Institute of Directors (Nigeria), Institute
of Strategic Management, Academy of Entrepreneurship Studies, and inducted into
the Junior Achievement (Nigeria) Hall of Fame; and by the Senate of the
University of Nigeria and Alumni of UNN (ALOHA – A Lion of High Achievement)
with a collection of more than 700 plaques that mark a life of service. He has
been awarded the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA Honoris Causa) by the
University of Nigeria in 2012. He was recently, along with such legends as Mr.
Akintola Williams, Dr. Michael Omolayole and Dr. Christopher Kolade, honoured
by the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI), the only such recognition in two
decades. He was also celebrated by Delta State Government as it marked 20 years
of Delta as one of the top 50 Deltans in history, and also named among Igbo
global best 50 of Ola Ndigbo. Prof. Utomi was voted one of the top 10 Nigerian
Living Legends in the Vanguard/Silver Bird Television poll in 2009.
As a
Business Angel he has helped found such companies as Linkserve (Nigeria’s first
ISP), Socketworks (Pioneer e-government systems developer in Nigeria, and
Business Day (Nigeria’s first daily business newspaper). He created the iconic
LBS monthly executive briefing breakfast and hosted it for its first 10 years,
and inspired the founding of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Studies of LBS
(now EDC) after a 1996 visit to the Sole C. Snyder Centre at Wharton, in
Philadelphia. His other books include Critical Perspectives in Political
Economy and Management; To Serve is to Live; Business Angel as a Missionary,
The Art of Leading, and four other books that are collections of his published
opinions. He has written dozens of chapters in edited volumes. Conversations
with him have also been published in books of interviews with Utomi.
Appointed
Professor of the Social and Political Economy Environment of Business and
Pioneer Entrepreneurship Teacher at LBS, he has been a scholar-in-residence at
the Harvard Business School and the American University in Washington DC. As
leader of Civil Society, he is the founder of the Centre for Values in
Leadership; and the Concerned Professionals, which was bulwark against-military
oppression, among numerous other social enterprise initiatives. He has served
on the key apex private sector associations including the Lagos Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (LCCI); The National Council of the Manufacturers
Association of Nigeria; and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association
(NECA). He is active on the international speaking circuit, especially on the
subjects of growth economics, comparative development, leadership, the curse of
oil and China’s economic surge and growing influence in Africa. He has collaborated
fairly frequently with the Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS) in Washington, and Chatham House, in the UK. He has also written
commissioned papers for the UK’s DFID including the latest collaboration with
Colleagues from Oxford on the Political Economy of Growth in Nigeria (2006).
Active in
leadership of boards of firms involved in several sectors including financial
services, information technology, food technology, marketing communications,
media groups and telecommunications, including Chairman, Platinum Bank,
later Vice-Chairman Bank PHB, Chairman, Corporate Finance Group (CFG),
Chairman, Finacorp Building Society, Chairman, Business Day Media Ltd,
Chairman, Vivante Media Enterprises, Chairman, Graceland Chocolate Manufacturing
Company, Englewood, New Jersey, USA. (1998 – 2005), Chairman, Patike
Communications Ltd, Chairman, UEG (The Enterprise Group), Chairman, Trend Corps
Africa – The CTL and Trend TV Group, Executive Chairman, UTRM, Chairman/
General Partner, Leapfrog Venture Partners (Nigeria’s first true Venture
Capital Company), Director, and Co-founder, Linkserve (Nigeria’s first Internet
Service Provider), Director, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Chairman, Utomi
Technologies, Chairman, Interactive Data Systems Ltd, Chairman, Wordsmiths
(Printing and Packaging Company), Director, Contact Marketing Services Ltd,
Chairman, Utomapp Limited, Chairman, OK Computers Limited, Chairman, Bompac
Limited, Chairman, Baywood Continental Limited, the Oil Servicing Company,
Director, Computerage Nigeria Ltd – (Nigeria Master Franchise Holder),
Chairman, Avenues to Wealth – Network Marketing Venture, Chairman, Nagode
Industries Limited
Prof. Utomi
has undertaken key policy assignments including Chairman, Presidential Panel
for developing a National Integrity System (1999-2000), Chairman, Presidential
Panel for Restructuring Agencies of Integrity and Transparency for the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, Secretary and later as Acting Chairman, Economic Advisory
Team for candidate Olusegun Obasanjo in the run-up to the 1999 Presidential
election, Governance Committee of the transition council of President-elect
Olusegun Obasanjo, PPRAC, Chairman, Privatization Committee Governor-Elect of
Lagos State, Bola Tinubu’s transition working group. (1999)
Led quarterly
retreats of Lagos State Cabinet (1999-2005), Privatization Consultative Council
for Lagos State, served in USAID team designing and implementing training
intervention for elected officials in Nigeria in 1999, Advisory Committee to
Review JAMB (1999), Member, Delta State Think Tank on Development, the Steering
Committee of the National Council on Privatization for Competition and
antitrust, National Council on Privatization Steering Committee for Pensions
Reform, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on WTO and Trade Policy, Chairman
Committee of the FCT Minister for the City University of Abuja, Consultant to
World Bank Group Private Sector Assessment (PSA) for Nigeria.
Our country
is blessed with heroes like Prof. Pat Utomi who has continued to play a vital
and fundamental role in unfolding of Nigeria’s future and believes in the
restructuring of our national economy to guarantee benefits to all from our
common resources and for our common good. As one of the forthright commentators
on important national issues, he believes that no greater injustice can be
committed than to deny future generations the right to learn and the right to
knowledge. (Guardian)
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