Chief (Dr.) John Agboola Odeyemi, the Obasewa of Ile Ife, former Chairman of Ecobank Nigeria Plc and Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria will be 87 on Saturday, April 4. He was born in Ile-Ife on April 4, 1939, finished Elementary Education at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School, Ile-Ife in 1954 and later trained as Higher Elementary Teacher at St. Leo’s College, Abeokuta between 1956 and December 1959.
In 1965 and 1966, as a student on Sandwich course in Accounting at The College of Commerce & Technology, Wednesbury, Staffordshire England, he won the Rubbery Owen Prize, for the “Most Distinguished Student of the Year”; and “Outstanding Performance of the Year” respectively. He is the Chairman of JKN Limited and JAO Investment Company Limited.
He also serves currently on the board of Kinley Securities Ltd Stockbrokers. He is also the Chairman of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Board of Trustees. He served on the Board of a number of other companies and was the Chairman of Ecobank Nigeria Ltd from September 2006 to March 2010; was Chairman Refuge Insurance Company Limited and Obafemi Awolowo University Investment Company Limited from January 2007 to December 2012.
He was also a Director of Lead Bank Ltd, OASIS Insurance Plc, Multimalt Limited, Sowsco Well Services Limited and Kajola Integrated Investment Company Ltd. He was the Past President of LCCI, Past President of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, was Chairman Nigerian Accounting Standards Board from 1990 to 1995 and past President, Ife Development Board, 1995 to 2004.
He was a member of the National Political Reform Conference from February to July 2005; Member of the National Privatization Council (Bureau of Public Enterprise) October 2004 to October 2006; Member of the Committee on The Assessment and Monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals, June 2005 to October 2006 and was founding Member of the Governing Board of UNESCO Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
He was honoured by the Federal Government of Nigeria as Member Of The Order Of The Federal Republic (MFR) 2005; by Osun State Government with the State Distinguished Merit Award For Philantropy And Community Development in 2007 and by the Ile-Ife Community with Distinguished Merit Award in 2008.
He was given a Merit Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in 2005; awarded Doctor of Science in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife in December, 2007.
He was also given a special award by the Federation of Construction Industry for his contributions to the infrastructural development in Nigeria in June 2009 and appointed member of the Council of Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State in September 2009.
He was conferred Patron of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Osun State Council in August, 2010. He was also appointed Patron, Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers Foundation in October, 2011.
