Sunday Olorunsheyi and Wisdom Ezekiel- The Most Exemplary Co-Founders in Modern-day Corporate Nigeria Citation
The business partnership between Sunday Olorunsheyi and Wisdom Ezekiel, cofounders of Pertinence Group of companies has an interesting story behind it.
The two young men met about 20 years ago during an employment interview where Ezekiel was a panel member and Olorunsheyi, one of the candidates. Olorunsheyi’s performance before the panel was exceptional, by Ezekiel’s assessment. Ezekiel recalls: “I said this is a star, I just identified him among the people that came for that interview and before we knew it, we were working together as colleagues in the
company.” The company later fell into bad times, forcing the duo to join hands with another colleague to form a financial services company which also crashed after a while.
Olorunsheyi and Ezekiel resorted to menial businesses – selling CDs, DVDs, Couple Games, couple magazines, just anything – to survive. “We needed to survive, because that was survival time. Mr. Olorunsheyi and I became very close, because we were
always talking, always discussing, strategizing.” That led them to the creation of Pertinence Limited (French for Relevance), first as a Lagos-based transportation business.
The income from the transport business could not sustain them and had to be augmented with income from real estate marketing which both were involved in in their previous businesses. “Eventually we said, come, this real estate has been the major thing that has been giving us a good break and people are beginning to now know us with real estate. They were already asking us for landed property.”
That was how real estate has become a major component of the business portfolio of Pertinence Limited which was formed in 2012.
The success story of Pertinence is largely attributable to this long years of bonding between its cofounders, Ezekiel and Olorunsheyi.
The unique relationship between the co-founders led to the rapid growth of Pertinence Group which has attained the status of a blue-chip company in the real estate industry in Nigeria.
Apart from Real Estate, Pertinence is also into the business of Enterprise Development, Management Consulting and Enterprise Advisory Services.
Apart from developing Pertinence Limited into a thriving group of businesses, the two cofounders, Olorunsheyi and Ezekiel, also developed themselves in order to lay a sold managerial foundation.
Who are these unique partners?
Meet Sunday
Entrepreneur | Author | Global Speaker
OLORUNSHEYI Sunday Oluwagbenga is a highly successful Nigerian businessman and an international business leader with professional experience of over 20 years in building businesses in different sectors of work. He is the Co-founder of Pertinence Group and Chief Executive Officer of Globarel Group.
A serial entrepreneur, business management consultant, investment advisor, and global keynote speaker, Sunday has exhibited a high level of success in many respects. His personal mission is to help people in business break-forth by empowering their minds via training and mentoring. He serves a vast number of clientele in different fields on matters of Management Strategy Development, Business Expansion, Product/Service Development, Activation & Adaptation, Sales and Marketing, Portfolio Management, Investment Risk Assessment, and General Business Development.
Sunday is an astute business leader with a rich understanding of the African business economy. He currently seats on the board of over 12 thriving businesses amongst which include Pertinence Properties Limited (Real Estate & People Empowerment), HostNowNow Limited (Web Hosting), Prodigit Consulting Limited (Information Technology), 1st Royal Character and Values Limited (Social Capital Development), Petfam Technical Services Nigeria Limited (Engineering), PettySave Limited (Financial Technology) and Agbeloba Limited (Agriculture).
Sunday is an advocate for continuous learning, bagging 2 Masters Degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration from Business School Netherlands and Ladoke Akintola University respectively; while he is studying a Ph.D. at Charisma University. Sunday is a certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultant.
He’s currently the Lead Mentor at Olorunsheyi’s Mentorship Platform with a vision to raise globally relevant people. As a dedicated philanthropist, he is also the Founder & Chairman of The Olorunsheyi Foundation established to tackle poverty, poor education, and community health issues in Africa. Sunday is also a faculty member at The African Leadership Forum.
Right from a young age, Sunday’s drive to succeed, love for impact, and passion for service has been very evident. Although raised from a below-average family, his story of transition from ‘slum to stardom’ is truly inspiring.
Today, Sunday Olorunsheyi is globally recognized as a real estate expert and serial entrepreneur. For him, the road to success is one that requires reliance, focus and drive; his life and story prove just that.
About Wisdom Ezekiel
Wisdom A. Ezekiel is the Co-founder, PERTINENCE Group, owners of Pertinence Limited, Pertinence Properties Limited, Pettysave, DataFirst, ETRAC and recently, Realvest. Ezekiel entered the business and financial services sector about 20 years ago and has consistently grown in leaps and bounds. Prior to co-setting up Pertinence Limited in 2012, he worked as a financial planner with a financial services company in Lagos, where he was Executive Director, Lifepage Limited; among others. Ezekiel who holds an Executive MBA from the Metropolitan School of Business and Management in the United Kingdom, is evolving into a new generation boardroom juggernaut, as he currently operates as a frontline player in HostNowNow Limited and Rush Towers Limited, (with key interest in the entertainment industry).
In recognition of their unique bonding relationship which is responsible for the rapid growth of the Pertinence Group and the landmark achievements recorded by the company, Sunday Olorunsheyi and Wisdom Ezekiel are hereby honoured with the award of The Most Exemplary Co-Founders in Modern-day Corporate Nigeria.
