How Folake Soetan Leveraged Teamwork to Build an impressive Career

Folake Soetan, the Ag. Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based Ikeja Electric, fully understands the importance of teamwork in the corporate world. She never hesitates to mention how much teamwork has helped her to build her impressive career which began in 2000 as a Sales Agent at British Airways.

In September 2019 shortly after she was appointed COO of Ikeja Electric, Mrs Soetan wrote an open letter to herself, ending it with the following words – “Stay focused, continue to work hard, trust God, and keep being a team player.” She also emphasized on her LinkedIn bio that “my core belief is teamwork and collaborative leadership. The focus is always on building, leading high performing teams and cultivating a culture of professionalism and results oriented to accelerate growth”.

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Who is Folake Soetan?

Mrs Soetan is a Nigerian business executive with decades-long professional experience cutting across the aviation and energy sectors. Married for over sixteen years, the ever-amiable, very modern and sophisticated woman prides herself as a Christian. She has two twin sons and enjoys mentoring young people (especially female professionals) on how to successfully navigate between career and marriage.

Her Educational Background

In 1998, Folake graduated from the University of Lagos with a degree in Banking and Finance. She wouldn’t return back to school until 2018 when, at Harvard Business School, she went through the advanced management programme on organisational leadership.

Focus on her Sales Career in the Aviation Sector

For nearly ten years (between July 2000 and April 2009 to be precise), Folake had a very successful sales career in the Aviation industry. It all began at British Airways where she started out as a Telesales Agent. Before long, she was promoted to the position of a Sales Executive and then Sales Account Manager. 

By August 2004, she joined the now defunct Virgin Nigeria Airways as a Sales Account Manager. One year afterwards, she was promoted to Regional Sales Manager…

EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the entire piece on Joomag. It’s on page 66 of our 50 Most Influential Women in Business edition. Follow this link.