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Insight Grey gets
new CEO
By Azuka Onwuka
Brands &
Marketing Editor
Insight Communications Limited, a leading
advertising agency in Nigeria and an affiliate of Grey Worldwide, has announced
the appointment of Jimi Awosika as its chief executive officer with effect from
January 2005. Awosika, who is the current Managing Director of the company,
will be taking over the position of CEO from Biodun Shobanjo, who will only be
retaining the position of Vice Chairman of the Board.
In a statement signed by Shobanjo on
behalf of the Board of Insight Communications, he said: ”I don't know of
too many companies where continuity seems to have come as naturally as it has
happened here. Jimi and I were the principal architects of this company. He
has, as it were, been my understudy from the day I hired him at Grant
Advertising some 27 years ago. Having taken Insight to where it is today, I
believe the right thing to do is leave the day-to-day management of the
company in the hands of younger, more dynamic, more knowledgeable and
extraordinary team of people, ably led by Jimi, to create a better
company."
Speaking about his successor, Shobanjo
noted: "Jimi Awosika is perhaps the most knowledgeable and intellectual
powerhouse I have ever met in this business. An unassuming workaholic and
communications expert. I in particular and our Board are lucky to have him,
and are confident of his capability of commencing an exciting new chapter in
Insight's on going business evolution. I will continue to serve as Vice
Chairman of our Board, giving those vital support required for entrenching our
premium position in the market place. I also intend to devote my time in
strategically partnering with all our clients as well as guiding and
counseling those who drive our marketing communications and other service
businesses .In this regard, I am fascinated by what the likes of Sir Martin
Sorrel of WPP and Maurice Levy of Publicis Groupe are doing respectively. I
intend to fashion my next moves after these two giants."
Awosika, a Mass Communications graduate
of the University of Lagos, first worked at the news department of the then
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, (now FRCN) and left as an editor before
commencing his career in advertising in 1977, where he was recruited as an
Account Executive (Trainee) at Grant Advertising by Shobanjo, the then Deputy
Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer of the agency. Jimi left Grant
Advertising as an Account Executive at the end of 1979 to team up with his boss
in setting up Insight Communications in 1980.
He has had various professional and
management trainings in Nigeria, Europe, and the United States. He has at
various times headed the Client Service, Account Planning and Creative
departments of Insight. He is a major facilitator at various training
programmes of the communications industry and is currently the Chairman of the
Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria's Education Committee. A widely
travelled man, Jimi Awosika is married with children.
Shobanjo's advertising career, spanning
33 years, started at the American-owned Grant Advertising which he joined as an
Account Executive Trainee in November 1971, rising rapidly to becoming it's
Deputy Managing Director in 1976, the position he occupied until December 1979
when he left to co-found Insight Communications in January 1980.
Insight Communications has as clients
companies like Nigerian Breweries Plc, De-United Foods (Indomie), Seven-Up
Bottling Company, Samsung, Nestle Nigeria and British American Tobacco.
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