Premier Hotel Consolidates Leadership Position as Odu’a Appoints Abimbola Alagbe MD/CEO

Ololade Adeyanju/

The famed Premier Hotel, Ibadan, a member of the Western Hotels chain owned by Odu’a Investment Company Limited is set to consolidate its premier position in the hospitality landscape of South-West Nigeria with the appointment of tourism and hospitality expert, Mr. Abimbola Alagbe, as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

Odua Investment Company Limited is an indigenous conglomerate jointly owned by the six states of the South-West of Nigeria.

A statement by the board of Odu’a explains that Alagbe would also superintend over the repositioning of Lafia Hotel, Ibadan, the other member of the Western Hotels chain, widely regarded as number one destination for those seeking a home away from home.

The statement says the Managing Director was welcomed to his new position with a brief and colourful event graced by top echelons of the Odu’a group.

The statement adds that the new Managing Director was charged to hit the ground running deploying his wealth of experience to chart a new course of profitability for the hotels so as to justify the confidence reposed in his choice by the owners of the 53 year-old hospitality outfits.

Alagbe, 52, holds a combined-honours, Bachelors Degree in Language Education from University of Ilorin and a Masters Degree in Communications and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan. He is member and officer of many professional bodies in Nigeria and overseas.

Prior to this appointment, he was General Manager of the over 500-bed Gateway Hotels chain, where he rose through the ranks leveraging his close-to-two-decades experience in Marketing, Public and Customer Relations, Accounting, Housekeeping and other key operational departments of the Hotels to become the Chief Executive Officer between 1995 and 2009.

He was subsequently redeployed as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Gateway Tourism Development Corporation, the agency of the Ogun State Government which licenses and regulates hospitality outfits, tourism and allied businesses and remained in that position till 2012. This also afforded him the privilege of serving as a member of the Presidential Council on Tourism.

Alagbe thereafter joined the management of Ron Deotom Limited, a hospitality and allied industry’s management outfit, offering Total Hospitality Integrated Services in Nigeria and the United States, as Chief Operating Officer.

A widely travelled professional, Alagbe sits on several boards of businesses as well as on the governing council of many professional bodies in Nigeria. He was a two-term Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Ogun State Chapter, a past member of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and a two-term Chairman of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) Ogun State Chapter.

He had undergone professional training in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United States of America and has, since 2015, been admitted a Fellow of the American government-sponsored COCHRAN Educational Training on value chain distribution and Hospitality Management.

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