Nigeria’s boardroom matriarch and woman of many firsts, Chief (Mrs) Olutoyin Olusola Olakunrin, is dead. The corporate amazon died at 11:30am on Sunda
Nigeria’s boardroom matriarch and woman of many firsts, Chief (Mrs) Olutoyin Olusola Olakunrin, is dead. The corporate amazon died at 11:30am on Sunday, 3 June, 2018, while attending a thanksgiving service at her church, St Paul Anglican Church, Breadfruit, Lagos. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The Gbagura, Abeokuta, Ogun State, born corporate titan was aged 80. Olutoyin Olakunrin was the mother of Derin Agbaje, the wife of Segun Agbaje, the Managing Director of GT Bank.
A woman of many firsts, Olakunrin was one of Nigeria’s most celebrated standard icons. She was Nigeria’s first female chartered accountant. Her intellectual capacity stood her out among her contemporaries. She also served as the chairman of Education Trust Fund; and was a past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). She was the former president of the Society of Women Accountants in Nigeria (SWAN).
Olakunri had worked with Casselton Elliot & Co. as a Chartered Accountant and the then Nigerian Industrial Development Bank [NIDB], among others. She subsequently took a courageous leap into entrepreneurship and corporate management, owning and managing industrial outfits and venturing into stock broking. The first female President of the Institute of Directors [Nigeria], former member of the National Revenue Mobilization Allocation & Fiscal Policy Commission, Vision 20:2020 Committee, & Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Olakunri was also a nominated member of the Constituent Assembly that generated the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Similarly, she was on the Finance Committee of Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), and for eight years on the Board of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited. Chairman of the then Education Trust Fund [now Tertiary Education Fund] for two terms, she variously served on the Council of Federal University of Ado-Ekiti, Redeemer’s University, Bells University of Technology, & Achievers’ University. She was Chairman, the Committee of Elders. Olakunri was recognized locally and internationally for her varied contributions to the professions and societal development. She was an Officer of the Federal Republic [OFR] of Nigeria. She had honorary doctorate degrees from University of Ado-Ekiti [in Business Administration], Lagos State University [the Sciences], and University of Nigeria, Nsukka as well as chieftaincy titles from Owo, Ijebu-Ode, Abeokuta and Ijero-Ekiti.
She was happily married to Elder Simeon Olakunri, SAN with seven children and grandchildren.
