Tayo Aderinokun 1955-2011

I met Tayo Aderinokun sometime around September 1990 as I sought a move from the old First Bank to a more nimble “new generation” bank. Two older family friends strongly recommended the upcoming Guaranty Trust Bank and I submitted my CV through them. I saw Tayo and Fola Adeola at the Victoria-Island offices of First Marina Trust Ltd, a finance company managed by Tayo. The meeting was short, and my first impressions might not have been excellent. Both were in their early and mid-thirties, their smart shirts gleaming and they were smoking! I collected my employment letter some days later and resumed on November 1, 1990 with 83 others, at a hired training school while construction of the bank premises continued for another few months.

It became immediately clear that “Fola and Tayo” knew where they were going! Fola was the visionary, grand strategist and motivator; “Uncle T” as we soon started calling him was less communicative; but more practical and grounded; and had a nose for money! While Fola pushed the dreams, Tayo set the boundaries, and often led implementation. It was a classic “CEO/COO” team and probably one of the most effective and complementary leadership teams one could ever experience. Tayo was a consummate professional and stickler for excellence. He was extremely focused, along with the inspirational Fola, on building a world-class, successful African bank and they succeeded probably beyond their expectations. Guaranty Trust was their life and they put their considerable wits, energies, resources, and maybe their blood into making it work. “The Plaza” at Adeyemo Alakija, Victoria-Island was an iconic representation of their vision. It resembled a London, New York or Paris bank, and the bank’s service delivery; people; professionalism; corporate governance; and branding aspired to global standards. Most importantly, they achieved exceptional financial results! Tayo was in his elements during the “Monthly Profitability Report” (MPR) review meetings and investors in the bank were the better for it.

When Tayo took over as CEO in 2002, some may have doubted he could sustain the phenomenal performance recorded under Fola’s leadership. Tayo lacked Fola’s charisma and people skills; was shy and quiet; and had an insular, less communicative approach. But as GTBank’s performance since then testifies, Tayo was a first class manager; very driven and with uncanny instincts about market direction. He was strategically disciplined, to the bank’s benefit, when trouble befell the industry! Uncle T had a good and generous spirit…and some eccentricities! He worked hard and played hard-privately off course. He loved the TGIFs, whisky, and his cigarettes. He enjoyed life’s pleasures and had impeccable taste! His table was always clean and sparkling, such that the uninitiated may have imagined he was idle. He kept a box on his table containing hundreds of sharpened pencils. He had his temper too, and God help you if you got on Tayo’s wrong side! He tended to have a narrow circle of friends and could be indifferent about those excluded from that inner circle. Yet, beyond the tough bank CEO, he was a gentle, kind and humble spirit who could have sang Tuface song-“If to say na just me!”

A few personal encounters shed some light on the real, inner Tayo-one day I walked into his office for some approval. He was happy with me-with Tayo it was easy to tell. I had just helped resolve a protracted Apapa property development to which the bank was exposed. He caught me glancing at a Citibank School of Banking brochure on his table and handed it over, asking if I was interested in any of the programmes. That was how I attended my first overseas course in New York in April 1995; we had one difficult female customer, who had stretched our patience to the limit but inexplicably always came out of Tayo’s office with some more forbearance. I later found out her strategy-she simply burst into tears and Tayo embarrassed and confused would grant her prayers and quickly usher her out of his office; on one occasion, we had just concluded a meeting where a “born again” customer had tried to evangelise him. Tayo told me he admired the humility of the Pastor behind the evangelical wave, but wasn’t convinced this was the “real thing”. He mentioned a friend who caught in spiritual fervour had donated a generator leased to him by the bank to his Church. We had the unpleasant task of retrieving the generator from the Church! It struck me that Tayo knew the “real thing”, and may have been fervently devout had he encountered it. Uncle T took a chieftaincy title in Owu, Abeokuta in 2009.

When I informed Tayo I was going into consultancy and teaching at Lagos Business School, he went surprisingly passionate, affirming his intent to retire into education-managing a secondary school and later built Day Waterman College in Abeokuta in fulfilment of that vision. Unfortunately he retired to the heavens! I saw Uncle T for the last time on January 4, 2011 with his wife at an ex-colleague’s 50th birthday party, his usual reserved and quiet presence. My condolences to Fola; his wife Funlola and children; his friends particularly my “egbons”-Jimi Agbaje, Akin Akintoye, Bode Agusto, Sola Adeeyo, Akin Kekere-Ekun; his brother Kayode and family; his colleagues at GTBank and First Marina; and my friend, Salamatu. May his soul rest in peace.