– When A ‘Party Animal’ Becomes Boardroom Titan
By Sunday Ogundairo
Aigbovbioise Aig-Imoukhuede will not let vanity run its sullied feet through his mind. Even as you read.
For the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of Coronation Bank, the era of feting and caving to random lusts are unmistakably over. He is no longer the dandy socialite. He has been there, done that.
While no wildness may be ascribed to him, it could be averred that as far as the high society circuit is concerned, he has been to its crannies and rifled through its nooks; he has charted the depths of the fanciest soirees and partied hard, like the life of every party, until he took a gallant step, inwards.
In the end, Aigbovbioise discovered that life is hardly an endless party, and that no one attains enlightenment by imagining images of light, but by making the darkness conscious of its capacity to be lucent.
Aigbovbioise reached determinedly into his innate persona nursing neither mortification nor fear of the mirror effect. Looking inward to himself, he sensed where all the contradictions seeped together and made a conscious attempt to change.
Few people would forget in a hurry, the wild epoch of his lusts.
And he chooses some of the most beautiful holiday destinations in the world for his extravagant frolics foregrounded by brunettes, bubblies, and blue seas.
He knows more than a thing or two about living the life. He knows what time it is regarding fun-lovers playgrounds and such appurtenances.
The Coronation Bank chief, prowled the nooks and crannies of the social circuit, at home and abroad, like the typical socialite cum party animal. One of the reasons Aigbovbioise was drawn to the socialite life was the way it’s chock-full of colourful characters and fascinating narratives. The open spaces and party zones of Nigeria and Europe attracted people of all classes and nationalities in search of fortune, adventure or escape.
From Lagos to Abuja, the federal capital to London, and everywhere in between, he traversed like as the ultimate rockerfella. He loved his cognac the same way a child covets his sandbox.
Unlike his easy-going billionaire brother, Aig Imoukhuede, the former MD of Access Bank who is now the Chairman of Coronation Bank, Aigbovbioise was a man-about-town; a jolly good fellow who came across as having no worries in life.
Every day unfurled for him like Christmas, or, at least a day to cavort and immerse in rounds of expensive drinks. A night crawler par excellence, he was indeed a major force among the Lagos party crowd.
But no sooner did he marry than he beat a retreat from the social arena.
Many years after, he got married to a woman whose influence imbued his life with a more positive turn. While his friends and family agonised over his perpetual bachelorhood, Aigbovbioise surprised them with the only woman with whom he would walk down the aisle: Funke Fowler.
The latter, who is the daughter of the Federal Inland Revenue boss and former Lagos tax Czar, Tunde Fowler, also found love in Aig, soon after she bled and stung from an ill-fated marriage to ex-husband, Abbey Kuku.
At the moment, Aigbovbioise and Fowler’s story reads like a passionate verse in a treatise of love. The intrigues and realities inspire such rare passion that has become a reference point for experienced and budding romantics alike among their coterie of friends, relatives and other loved ones.
Being happily married, his life has changed drastically as he adopted a more mature disposition to life generally. So remarkable was the change that came over him that his elder brother, Aig Imoukhuede, who is now the Chairman of Coronation bank made him the MD because of his new ways.
Aigbovbioise has over 22 years of experience as a diversified financial professional with expertise in wealth management, corporate banking, treasury and capital market transactions.
He began his career at Fidelity Bank in 1997, where he worked in various capacities in Retail banking, Private banking, Commercial banking, Public sector, Treasury and Funds Management. He later joined MBC International Bank, where he rose to become Head of the Construction/Real Estate and Investment Banking Unit. Afterwards, he joined the Corporate Banking Directorate of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. He moved to Marina Securities Limited as Director of the Wealth Management and Business Development; and later joined Coronation Merchant Bank as the Head of Coronation Capital Markets Division.
Following the divestment of Coronation Merchant Bank from the Asset Management subsidiary in June 2019, Aigbovbioise was appointed as the Managing Director of Coronation Asset Management Limited.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from the University of Buckingham, and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Directors, Nigeria and UK.
