The erstwhile Head of Trade Marketing at the Nigerian Breweries, Funso Ayeni who put in over 17 years into building profitable brands, creating and selling their stories through-the- line in relevant ways has added another outstanding achievement to his basket.
Known for swimming against the tide, Ayeni recently bowed out gloriously from Nigerian Breweries and set tongues wagging on what would be his next move. Pundits had concluded that Ayeni must have definitely secured a prime place in another multinational company but he did the unexpected.
The Ekiti born top corporate player simply heeded the call from home and joined the local politics to enable him to empower his people more. It would be recalled that prior to that move, Ayeni had invested heavily into philanthropic endeavour through his Funso Ayeni Foundation. Through the platform, and with his hard-earned income, had contributed to community development and individual empowerment.
As at the last count, over 30 communities in Ekiti North Senatorial district had benefited from his largess. It was this singular selfless act that spurred his people to drag him into politics. The peak of this was his winning the primary election which enabled him to stand for his party, the Peoples Democratic Party in the last year senatorial contest for Ekiti North.
Meanwhile, in the midst of all the political struggle, Funso didn’t get distracted as he was still pursuing his academic target to get to the pinnacle of academic excellence. Shortly before he left Nigerian Breweries, he gained admission to pursue a PhD programme at Walden University, USA. While working towards winning election in Ekiti, he was simultaneously dedicating a reasonable time to his research work. The big one is that a few weeks ago, Ayeni successfully defended his thesis and earned PhD in management, specializing in leadership and organizational strategy.
The journey began in 2002 when he bagged Higher National Diploma at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti and by 2005, he had added a Post graduate Diploma Applied Geophysics at the Federal University of Technology, Akure. Rather than allowing complacency to set in especially with a good job in Nigerian Breweries, he proceeded to Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho, where he added Masters in Business Administration in 2010. In 2018, he was in the University of Salford, UK for another Master of Science and in 2023 he bagged Master of Philosophy at the Walden University, USA which paved the way for the PhD programme which he just concluded.
Reacting to why he went back to school to earn a PhD in management, the top corporate player turned politician simply said, “Sincerely, I didn’t see anything unusual in my academic journey; it’s part of the dream I have set for myself. Yes, management because I want to become a scholar practitioner to advance a greater good, become a better thinker and be able to shape experience to impact knowledge,”