Between Adeola Bali and Nana Otedola

Between Adeola Bali and Nana Otedola

How Adeola Has Been Running Garment Care

Aside being a style icon, Adeola Bali has also built a reputation as a corporate Amazon. Her fertile experience in finance and management is evidenced by how well she has been running Garment Care, the upscale dry cleaning company, owned by Nana Otedola, the beautiful wife of Femi Otedola.

Bali’s career trajectory had traversed several reputable multi-national companies. She has had a fulfilling career story, which covers banking, aviation, (Virgin Nigeria), entertainment, (HITV) and telecommunication (Telegsm).
Going by her lofty achievements in the corporate sector, most people had expected that she would set up and run a multi-billion dollar business management company, after her dis-engagement from HiTV. But rather than do that, Bali opted to run her friend’s dry-cleaning outfit. And she reportedly made this huge sacrifice just because of the undiluted love and adulation she has for her best friend, Nana.

While Nana lives in London, Bali runs and operates Garment Care business activities. She injects fresh innovations into the running of the company, and this has seen it occupying a primal position within the dry cleaning sector. Seeing that the company she holds so dear to her heart is in a safe hand, Nana has no inhibition about giving her friend a free hand run to the company. On her own part, Bali has never given her boss any reason to regret entrusting such a huge asset in her care.

Garment Care is Nigeria’s premier dry cleaning company and it is the first European style operation established in Nigeria. Back in 1999, when Femi and Nana Otedola set up the dry-cleaning company, it was positioned to hold a firm grip on its status as the best laundry company in Africa. Twenty years down the line, that dream is tottering on the brink of futility.

Born into the prominent family of the Onafowokan of Ijebuland, Ogun State, Bali started out her career as an audit trainee with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in December 1989. She then spent several years in Financial Services Regulation, working with the Financial Services Authority and was responsible for the regulation of LIFFE and LME firms.
Before joining Virgin Nigeria in October 2005, Bali was Head, Human Capital Management at Oando Plc. Prior to assuming that role, she was responsible for the management change programme following the Unipetrol and Agip merger.
Bali holds a B. Sc. in Economics and Accounting from the University of Southampton. She is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

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