Adetokunbo Oluwafeolami Durotoye was born in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State on 12 May 1971. He is a business consultant, leadership expert, and motivational speaker. He is married to Tara Durotoye, a beautician and celebrity make-up artist, she is known as the famous owner of House Of Tara. Fela is the president of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to developing young people for transformative leadership and social change. He was the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2019 presidential elections.
Early Life And Education
Adetokunbo Oluwafeolami Durotoye, also known as Fela Durotoye, is a Nigerian musician. He was born to Layiwola and Adeline Durotoye, both University of Ibadan academics. Fela attended the Staff Children’s School (1974-1981) and graduated from Moremi High School after his parents moved to Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife (1981–1986). Durotoye went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with Economics, as well as a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A) from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife. He graduated from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program.
Fela Durotoye attended Yale University’s High Impact Leadership for a Better Society program. He is also a John Maxwell Team certified leadership coach. Fela completed the executive seminar program on strategy, innovation, and governance at Pan-Atlantic University’s Lagos Business School in 2015. This was followed by a supernumerary police training program at the Nigerian Police Training College, from which he graduated with honors.
Career
Fela is widely recognized as one of Africa’s top Executive Coaches. He is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council (an invitation-only community for senior-level executives in the global coaching industry).
FD, as he is affectionately known, is well-known for his distinct style of blended mentoring and coaching that assists business and impact leaders in achieving exponential growth in their key success parameters. His inspirational leadership style inspires even the most successful executives and workforces to strive to exceed their collective goals and to push beyond their perceived boundaries of possibility.
Fela has developed and deployed his proprietary coaching framework – C.A.S.P.E.R – over the course of his 27-year coaching and consulting career to deliver Clarity, Alignment, Strategy, Planning, Execution, and Results to his clients from Banking & Financial Services to Telecoms, Oil & Gas, FMCG, as well as the Multilateral & Public Sector.
Fela Durotoye is a guest lecturer on LEADERSHIP at Stanford University’s prestigious SEED program, which is designed to assist CEOs of businesses with operations across the African continent in achieving transformational growth.
In 1992, he began his work as a financial analyst at Ventures & Trusts Limited. In 1998, he left Ventures and Trusts Limited to work as the head of the customer service department at Phillips Consulting Limited. Fela founded his own company, V.I.P Consulting Limited, in 2000. In Nigeria, the corporation was noted for its effective customer and human resource management. The company is currently being restructured as a social enterprise called Visible Impact Limited.
Mushin Makeover
Fela Durotoye championed the then-urban regeneration project “Mushin Makeover” in December 2009. Banky W, Alibaba, Kate Henshaw, Omoni Oboli, Teju Babyface, Sound Sultan, TY Bello, Dj Jimmy Jatt, Omawumi, Denrele, Dele Momodu, Tosin Bucknor, Stella Damasus, Tee A, Segun Dangote, and Ebuka Obi-Uchendu were among those who painted and called for paint donations for the project. Young professionals volunteered to paint and donated free paint.
Fela organized over 2,000 volunteers to paint 296 houses on 7 streets in Lagos’ Mushin neighbourhood at no cost to the owners or residents. Berger Paints PLC trained approximately 100 unemployed teenagers in ‘The Art & Technique of Painting’ as part of the Mushin Makeover initiative. As a result of the Mushin Makeover project, the youths went on to make a living as painters.
Personal Life
Tara Fela-Durotoye, a celebrity Nigerian make-up artist, lawyer, and CEO of the House of Tara International, a leading beauty company with over 4,000 beauty representatives, 22 beauty studios, and 12 make-up schools, is Fela’s wife. Mobolurin, Demilade, and Morolaoluwa are their three sons.
Politics
On February 22, 2018, Fela Durotoye announced his desire to run for president of Nigeria in the 2019 general election under the Alliance for New Nigeria political party. He was chosen as the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together’s consensus candidate (PACT). On September 29, 2018, Fela emerged as the presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), which formed a coalition with the Young People Party. In the year 2022, he declared his intention to run for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria once more.
Projects
- Eden
- Mushin-Makeover
- Visible Impact
- Gemstone 2025
- Speaker’s Corner
- 24/7
- The Future Leader Program
- Yes!
- True Nigerian Project
- Super Speaker
Book Publications
- 17 Secrets Of High Flying Students: Amazing Laws of Academic Excellence.
- Mr. Fantastic
- Subordinate
- The Enslaved Virgin Girl
- Free from Corporate Slavery
- Good Better Best: (From Average to Excellent)
Awards and Recognitions
- Nigerian Achievers Award Institute (NAAI).
- Fly Network Africa Integrity Award.
- City People Award.
- Role Model Award by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
- “Excellence in Human Resource Consulting Award” by NIPRO, a body of Nigerian Professionals based in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He got this award in recognition of his contributions to Human Resource Consulting at their global convention in Miami, Florida in December 2004.
- Most prestigious Award of Excellence, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN), in recognition of his excellence and professionalism in sharing his knowledge of Human Resource Management in July 2005.
- Heart of Africa Award by the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication in recognition of his efforts toward building a new Nigeria in 2006.
Net Worth
At the time of compiling his biography, his net worth is relatively unknown, but it is public knowledge that he is well-to-do and very much above the middle class.
