Omosede Ikeji (nee Giwa-Osagie), the brains behind Grand Cobbler Enterprises, is one versatile and self-assured young lady whose career switch from white-collar job to becoming a cobbler only takes a convinced heart.

With ivy league education in the United Kingdom and mouth-watering corporate jobs that followed suits, she has the world at her feet. Determined to make a success out of her husband’s vision of establishing a world-class cobbling Centre in 2014, Ikeji dropped her personal ambition and embraced her newfound career wholeheartedly with her magic touch.

 

As she turns 40, Funke Olaode unveils the bold and adventurous amazon who finds passion in recreating and reinventing the soul of luxury leathers.

 

She has a supermodel physique; tall, slim, elegant, exotic, and stunning, her glowing face commands attention. She has never worked as a model.

Hers is a brain mix with beauty as she often channels her intellect towards achieving goals in various corporate establishments where she had worked both home and abroad.

 

Welcome to the world of Omosede Ikeji, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grand Cobbler Enterprises with headquarters in Lekki, Lagos. Born in London on May 13, 1981, Omosede Ikeji (nee Giwa-Osagie) between 2003 and 2006, was at London Metropolitan University where she earned her first degree BA (Hons) in Marketing and Business Information Technology, between 2001-2003 she was at Westminster Kingsway College where she received Double Award in Business and Consumer Behaviour.

 

And from 1998 to 2000, she was in South Thames College where she studied Computer and E-Business Studies.

Armed with various degrees, Ikeji plunged herself into the corporate world. She started her career in 2006 with Avanti Screen Media, London, as an account executive.

 

In 2007, she worked with Vizeum (Aegis Group), London, as a Marketing Executive. She moved to Nigeria in 2009 and joined The Quadrant Company (a Troyka Company) as Head, Consumer Services, and in 2010 as Chief Operations Officer at Metro Taxi, Opebi, Lagos.

In 2014, she became the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grand Cobbler, where she manages daily operations of the shoe and leather good repair, overseeing corporate communications, including brand and corporate issues management, consumer communications, hiring and training of technical staff, procurement and management of inventory and supervision of management staff.

“I have always desired to be an entrepreneur within the sales and service delivery side of the business, and this was influenced by the places I worked while growing up.

Like many people in London, I started working very early, doubling with school. I started at 17 from McDonald’s in college and then JJB Sports as a salesperson and then to the prestigious Selfridges Luxury Mall where I worked for five years from my days in London Metropolitan University. Then I worked at Vizeum Media Group following a Career in Marketing and Business IT, which I majored in at the University before moving to the Luxury Leather Brand SMYTHSON as a Marketing Executive overseeing Asia and the South Pacific.