The Chairman of Troyka Group, Mr. Biodun Shobanjo, was awarded the Extraordinary Business Achievement Award at the recently concluded 2017 edition of the Silverbird Man of the Year, at a prestigious event held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
The award was conferred on him in recognition of his exceptional business accomplishments in repositioning Nigeria’s Integrated Marketing Communications industry as well as his exemplary leadership skills, sound management and human resources development.
While receiving the award, the advertising guru recounted his 47 years’ experience describing it as an arduous but worthy journey. He said, “We started from zero. We didn’t have so much support but we were focused on our goals and riding on our determination and tenacity of purpose we gradually turned things around in the industry.”
Continuing, Shobanjo remarked that in order to run a successful venture, there is a need to network with people who have experience within and outside the company as well as watching out for what competition is doing locally and internationally.
Mr. Shobanjo’s advertising career, starting in 1971, saw him rise rapidly until December 1979 when he birthed the idea to co-found Insight Communications in January 1980. He was the Chief Executive Officer of the company for 25 years, a position from which he stood down at the end of December 2004.
Insight Communications, now part of Troyka Holdings, Nigeria’s largest and most innovative branded equity company, is one of the eleven companies housed under the holding company with businesses in marketing communications, resource management and asset protection. The group currently boasts of offering direct employment to over 18,000 direct employees.
In December 2015, Mr. Shobanjo’s dream of turning Troyka into a global player was fulfilled, with an equity partnership agreement, signed between Troyka and Publicis Groupe, the third largest communications group in the world.
Other Business moguls who clinched similar Award titles at the event are; Dr Ola Orekunrin-Brown, CEO, Flying Doctors; Leo Stan, Chairman, Zinox Group; Deji Alli, Managing Director, ARM Investment Managers; and Alhaji Samad Rabiu, Chairman and CEO, BUA Group.
The high caliber event was graced by top dignitaries in the Government and Business circles, some of which include former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar; the First Lady of Ghana, Rebecca Akufo-Ado, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike, the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, among others.
