Otunba Seni Adetu, Founder/Group CEO of First Primus West Africa Ltd has been appointed the Chairman of Marketing Edge Awards Board.
Adetu, former Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc, board room impresario and marketing guru has considerable expertise in marketing, commerce, finance and corporate governance best practices. He is the first Nigerian and first African to be appointed Marketing Director for the Coca-Cola Company in Nigeria. He became Managing Director Coca-Cola International for English West Africa (excluding Nigeria), based in Ghana in 2001.
Otunba Seni Adetu joined Diageo Group, the parent company of Guinness in August 2006. At Diageo, he also became the first-ever African Managing Director/CEO and Vice Chairman of Guinness Ghana Breweries Ltd, based in Accra, Ghana. In 2008, he led his team to becoming the “Company of the Year” for Diageo/Guinness of all the International businesses. He was appointed Group Managing Director/CEO of Diageo East Africa and East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) from where he returned to Nigeria to lead Guinness Nigeria Plc as its Managing Director/CEO as well as Executive Chairman of Diageo Brands Nigeria.
Adetu is the Founder/Group CEO of First Primus West Africa Ltd, an upscale Integrated Marketing Communications company based in Lagos. He is a Leadership Coach, facilitator on the Chief Executive Programme of the Lagos Business School and a Director of Fidelity Bank Plc.
He will chair a well appointed board populated by industry juggernauts like Messrs Dickson Eze, Founder/CEO, Greencorn Marketing Communications Limited, a total Marketing Communications outfit with core competences in Experiential Marketing (Activations), Event Management (Corporate & Brands), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Public Relations & Media; Chuddy Oduenyi, Managing Director, Compact Communications Limited, a public relations firm; Biodun Adefioye, formerly an executive director, client service with Rosabel Advertising and now Communication Consultant, with Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project; Wasiu Abiola, Head of Media, Digital and Sponsorship, Nigerian Breweries Plc and 1st vice-president, Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN; Kunle Ericson Akinnagbe; HRH Oba Ayodele Kupoluyi who was until recently, the Managing Director, Media Seal (formerly Starcom Media); and Mrs. Temitope Jemerigbe, Managing Director, DKK Media.
Speaking on the need for the inauguration of the Awards Board and the composition, the Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of MARKETINGEDGE, Mr. John Ajayi said the MARKETINGEDGE BRANDS AND ADVERTISING EXCELLENCE AWARDS has evolved into such a strong brand that should have a structure and input of some of the best minds in the industry.
“This is with a view to having the distinguished professionals cum entrepreneurs lead his (Ajayi’s) team in its inspired determination to make the event bigger, better and more impactful from now on”, adding that “the choice of the individuals was informed by an aggregation of their professional, administrative and entrepreneurial credentials which we can simply describe as gargantuan in stature and global in outlook; not to talk of their passion for and immense contributions to the IMC industry, both in Nigeria and beyond the shores of our country”.
Meanwhile, Otunba Seni Adetu, while accepting the offer to chair the board, commended MARKETINGEDGE for consistently expanding the frontiers of marketing knowledge and celebrating the industry’s best since its inception fifteen years ago. He promised on behalf of the board to join hands with the MARKETINGEDGE team to take Awards to the next level.
