Like the peas in a pod, the stories of Otunba Subomi Balogun and Pascal Dozie read alike. Apart from the divergence in lifestyles, flamboyant Balogun and conservative Dozie have so much in common. While over eighty-year-old Otunba Subomi is the founder of First City Monument Bank, hailed as the first privately-owned bank in Nigeria, Imo State-born Dozie founded Diamond Bank in 1990. Both are also heavily involved in other lucrative businesses that have helped to establish their imprints in the history and evolution of the Nigerian economy.
Both are renowned and reputable boardroom gurus. Without gainsaying the fact, these men, who understand that leaving footprints in the sands of time are not achieved by sitting down, have single-handedly built enduring institutions that can outlive their children’s children. Interestingly also, both are monogamists.
Since his retirement from active business life, the Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State born white-apparel loving Balogun has watched his first son, Ladi, successfully steer the course of FCMB as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, a position he attained in 2005. An Economics graduate of the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom and MBA holder from the Harvard Business School, USA, Ladi has seen the company through many tempests and has emerged even stronger. Today, FCMB is one of Nigeria’s stronger banks. And Otunba Balogun can jolly well recline on a chaz-lounge in his sprawling Tunwase Court country home with a smile on his face knowing his baby, FCMB, is in competent hands.
For 75-year-old Dozie who stepped down as MD of Diamond Bank in December 2005, nothing can be more heartwarming than the appointment of his son, Uzoma, as MD/CEO of Diamond Bank two years ago. The Chemistry graduate of University of Reading, England, who once described himself as an accidental banker joined Diamond Bank in 1998 as an Assistant Manager and Head of Diamond Bank’s Oil and Gas Unit. More than anybody else, the older Dozie must see his son’s elevation as a fitting denouement of his illustrious career as a businessman.
