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Background Born Kolawole Aluko in Lagos, Nigeria on the 20th of October 1969, to a pharmacist mother and geologist and socialite Father, Chief Akanni Aluko (Chairman Island Club and High Chief in Ilesha, Osun State, Nigeria) a geologist. Kola Aluko attended Igbogbi College in Lagos. Aluko says, he was “from an early age very ambitious and I always knew I wanted to work for myself”. “Highly competitive and keen on sports”, Aluko’s entrepreneurial mindset saw him work in different industries, from pharmaceuticals to cars, before settling for the oil industry in the early 1990s. Business career Kola Aluko cofounded Besse Oil, a pioneering oil trading company in Nigeria in 1995. Besse Oil, one of the first to obtain a credit line with major international banks, traded crude oil and fuel oil and was also a major importer of gasoline. Six years later, in 2001, Aluko founded Fossil Resources, an indigenous downstream oil and gas company, where he held the role of CEO. In 2004, Kola Aluko formed Exoro Energy International, became CEO and moved into exploration and production. Exoro Energy partnered with a division of Weatherford, to showcase its exploration and production technology. In 2007, the division of Weatherford was bought out and merged with Exoro Energy to form an independent company, Seven Energy.
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Kola Aluko, with a team of Nigerian and international E&P executives, co-founded Atlantic Energy in 2011, a private upstream oil and gas company, with an increased focus on under-developed producing fields in Nigeria. In partnership with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Atlantic Energy focused mainly on Niger Delta assets, contracted and executed under Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs) with the NPDC. In 2010, Aluko diversified into the aviation industry, becoming a member of the VistaJet advisory board, assisting with the West-African expansion of the Swiss-based luxury aviation company. Aluko: Philanthropically Interested Kola Aluko is a co-founder of Made in Africa (MiAF), a foundation ‘set up to support and fund master plans and feasibility studies for transformational and large-scale developments and infrastructure projects across the African continent. MiAF’s other co-founder is the Ghanaian fashion designer Oswald Boateng. On 26 September 2013, MiAF launched the Africa50 fund at New York’s NASDAQ, Africa’s largest infrastructure investment vehicle to date. MiAF, in alliance with the African Development Bank (ADB), aims to raise US$500 million for Africa50 by early 2014. The two institutions are supported by the investment expertise of Capri Global Capital – a US-based investment advisory founded by African-American fund manager Quintin E. Primo III. Aluko, who is based in Nigeria and Switzerland, is a passionate motorsports enthusiast, who races and competes in conjunction with Swiss-based Ferrari team Kessel Racing. In December 2012, Aluko and his Kessel teammates Thomas Kemenater and Maurizio Mediani came third in the final round of the Endurance Champions Cup held at Rome’s Vallelunga circuit in Italy. Reference Bloomberg.com. newafricanmagazine.com Wikipedia Featured image: Awareness media
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