Woman at the Top: Ronke Sokefun Becomes Non-Executive Director of Oando
Ronke Sokefun
HighLife
In her poem, The Winds of Fate, Ella Wheeler Wilcox observed that the winds of fate are like the winds of the sea. Similar to how it is the set of the sails (and not the gales) that decide the way the ship must go, Wilcox said that it is the set of the human soul that decides its destination, not an easy or difficult life. We see the truth of this opinion in how Ronke Sokefun seems to be going higher and higher, neither intimidated by the illimitable toil of her peers nor the similarly interminable ambition of her superiors.
A few days ago, the management of a multinational energy company and one of Africa’s largest integrated energy solutions providers, Oando PLC, revealed two new trump cards going forward: Sokefun and Nana Fatima Mede. The company announced that both Sokefun and Mede have joined the Oando heritage as independent non-executive directors. By every indication, Oando does not intend to lag behind its global peers as we continue to advance in the second decade of the 21st century.
Knowing Sokefun’s brilliance and administrative might, it is not difficult to deduce what the management of Oando PLC intends to achieve. In one word, the company wants dominance. Using Sokefun’s career profile and past achievements as a measuring line, it is evident that the multinational company can realise this goal.
In the last 30 years, Sokefun has used her business smarts and accomplishments to show the Nigerian corporate corridor what she is made of. From working with Ighodalo & Associates, as well as Aluko & Oyebode, in the early ‘90s, to providing peerless legal services at Oando since 2002, Sokefun has risen in prominence and brilliance. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to call her one of the best-hidden pillars of corporate advisory leaders in the country.
Before this new Oando appointment, Sokefun was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
In the last two years since that appointment, Sokefun’s contributions have not only grown in effect (depth) but also in scale (width). Thus, her name echoes from one end of the Nigerian corporate corridor to the other.
Oando has really struck it rich this time, for Sokefun’s experience is not any less valuable than a treasure trove containing a millennium’s accumulation of precious stones.
