Adetokunbo Olufela Durotoye is a business consultant, leadership expert, and motivational speaker. He is the president of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization targeted at training youths towards transformational leadership and social change.
Fela was born on May 12, 1971 in Ibadan, Oyo Stateto Layiwola and Adeline Durotoye, both professors at the University of Ibadan. After his parents moved to University of Ife, he attended the Staff Children’s School and graduated to Moremi High School in 1986. He obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science with Economics, as well as a master’s degree in Business Administration (M.B.A) at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is an alumnus of John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program of Harvard University.
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He is married to Tara Fela-Durotoye, a Nigerian make-up artist, lawyer and CEO of House of Tara. They have three sons, Mobolurin, Demilade & Morolaoluwa.
In 1992, he worked as a financial analyst at Ventures & Trusts Limited. He was the head of customer service department at Phillips Consulting Limited in 1998. He went on to start V.I.P Consulting Limited in year 2000 which soon became notable in customer and human management in Nigeria. The firm was restructured and switched from a consulting firm to a social enterprise called Visible Impact Limited.
In December 2009, he championed an urban renewal project “Mushin Makeover” which involved celebrities like Banky W, Alibaba, Kate Henshaw, Omoni Oboli, Teju Babyface, Sound Sultan, TY Bello, Dele Momodu, Tosin Bucknor, Stella Damascus among others, painting and calling for donations of paints for the project. The project in which over 100 unemployed youths were trained by Berger Paints PLC in ‘The Art & Technique of Painting’. The youths went on to earn a living as painters as a result of the Mushin Makeover project.
Durotoye facilitates and speaks at management and leadership retreats across within and outside Nigeria. In 2018, he gave a speech to over 200 entrepreneurs at the inaugural Nigerian American Business Forum in Tampa Florida, where he shared the podium with senior senator Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi, senator Ben Murray-Bruce, Nigerian Stock Exchange chairman Abimbola Ogunbanjo, Media pioneer Biodun Shobanjo, former governor Peter Obi and technologist Ade Olufeko.
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On February 22, 2018, he made his intention to run for Presidency in the Nigerian general election, 2019 under the political party Alliance for new Nigeria.
