Tom Iseghohi: The hope behind Transcorp

Tom Iseghohi, MD, TranscorpTHE onus fell on him because he had demonstrated the typical ‘never say die’ Nigerian attitude in him. Penultimate June 2007, investors in the stocks of Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) were bitting fingers, counting losses of their misjudgement of buying the shares of the organisation. If any company in Nigeria raised the hope of investors on the prospects of investing their hard-earned funds, Transcorp it was. No other organisation in the country had the oppurtunity of harnessing the management potentials of Aliko Dangote, Moyo Ajekigbe, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, in its board of directors. But boardroom politics consumed all the glimmers of hope and the important figures left Transcorp in the height of the company’s crisis.

It was at this critical state in the life of the company that Tom Iseghohi was brought in as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer. His appointment came as a surprise to many especially who did not know his antecedents, He took over from Fola Adeola.

The decision of Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, Transcorp’s chairman and other directors to settle for Iseghohi will not alarm those who have seen his achievements in the business world. As far as the Nigerian business scene was concerned, his name hardly rang a bell. He had never run a successful business in the country neither had he occupied a public office before. Besides, he looked too flamboyant with his stylish haircut and well-toned body to be a busy business executive. In fact, he did not cut the picture of an accustomed business executive or the messiah that would steer Transcorp out of the doldrums. But that was as far as the doubts could go.

At 43, and with two decades of corporate business experience with leadership roles in finance, strategy, purchasing, sales, marketing and operations, the American-trained financial analyst has had an illustrious career history that would intimidate many international business executives. With a combined honours degree in Accountancy and Computer Science, Iseghohi joined the Florida National Bank where he quickly developed analytical and presentation skills. He spent two years before returning to school to study for his MBA in Finance and International Business. Thus began his rise in the impervious corporate America.

A Catholic by birth, Iseghohi joined the Ford Motor Company as a financial analyst and in less than three years and with multiple promotions to boot, the desire for new challenges became too overpowering. He left Ford to join the Pepsi International, which he said was borne out of the need to garner more industry knowledge and to experience 'the Pepsi culture'. Iseghohi was to spend the next eight years at Pepsi during which he occupied various top financial positions and came out untainted. Pepsi valued their young Nigerian so much that they made him Sales Operations Officer for the entire United States when he was just 29 years old. By the time he turned 32, the soft drink giant appointed him Chief Financial Officer but he seemed to have seen it all with Pepsi.

After much pressure, Iseghohi agreed to return to Ford Motor Company to become the Assistant controller of global vehicle operations. As if driven to make an impact, it did not take him long to re-establish his penchant for unalloyed success. Less than a year afterwards, he was made Director of Global Car Pricing. At the age of 36, he had impacted on the competitive American business environment so much that many blue-chip companies kept knocking at his door to help steer their companies to the mainstream. They all acknowledged that he had the skills to do exactly that.

Perhaps, it was business adventurism or a search for integrated professional challenges, the ‘proudly Nigerian’ business whizkid crossed over to the American Express Group Worldwide, a financial services company on Wall Street in New York with approximately $22 billion in annual turnover. This new job switch meant that the Nigerian was one of the top 15 executives out of 84,000 employees at his new company. He said of that great challenge, “As Executive Vice President and corporate controller, I am placed among the top 15 highest-ranked black people in the entire Fortune 500 companies (the 500 largest companies in the world).” By the time he became the Chief executive officer of emerging Capital Group, a New York-based venture capital firm with focus on direct equity investments in emerging markets, Iseghohi had worked in three out of the Fortune 500 companies in the world: Ford, Pepsi and American Express

Mr Iseghohi is a highly experienced executive with 20 years of corporate business experience in the global arena. He is an expert in business transformation and has led business transformation for some of the largest companies in the world such as American Express, Ford Motor Company and Pepsi-Cola Company. He is also a leading expert in economic and financial structures as well as deal creation and analysis. During the course of his career, Tom has been involved in structuring and analyzing hundreds of global, regional and domestic investment opportunities and specific portfolio risk management decisions.

Until his appointment, Mr. Tom Iseghohi was an Executive Vice President at the Hudson Consulting Group, a New York based Commercial and Governmental firm that focuses on Deal Analysis, Deal Creation, Transaction Facilitation, Strategy, Executive Coaching and Transformational Consulting. On a day to day basis, Tom coaches several Fortune 500 Top Executives including CEO's, Executive Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents on Strategic and Operational issues. The Hudson Consulting Group's average client has over $20 billion in annual turnover. Tom joined the Hudson Consulting Group from American Express in 2004 where he was head of Global Finance Operations Across American Express Bank, Travel Related Services and Investment Banking. At American Express, He was the Executive Vice President, Global Finance, Chief Procurement Officer, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. He managed the firm's global balance sheet with a total asset value of close to $200 billion dollars and Liquid assets of about $70 billion dollars. He managed all aspects including investment strategy, risk management, selection of fund managers around the world etc.

Iseghohi has also been an executive in three of the most respected and successful companies in the world; Ford Motor Company, $176 billion in annual revenue, Pepsi-Cola Company, $20 billion in annual revenue and American Express Group of Companies with $23 billion in annual revenue. Since Mr. Iseghohi moved to the US 25 years ago, he has been in constant touch with Nigeria by visiting at least twice a year. In the last 3 years, he has been spending a significant amount of time in Nigeria and spent a total of 5 months in Nigeria last year. He has been very involved in the economic turnaround of the country by consulting for governmental agencies such as the NEPC, NAFDAC, NITDA and the Nigerian Stock Exchange as well as various private companies. Mr. Iseghohi obtained his undergraduate degree in Accounting and Computer Science from Bethune-Cookman College in 1985 and his MBA in Finance and International Business from the Ohio State University in 1989. He completed the Executive Marketing Program at Duke University Graduate School in 1999 and The Kellogg (Northwestern) School of Management's Executive Board Program in 2005. He passed the CPA (Chartered Accountancy) Exam in 1993.

In his most recent role as Corporate Controller, Tom was the Chief Accounting Officer of American Express Company and was responsible for leading the major critical financial processes for the company. Responsibilities include internal and external reporting, financial policy and control. He also led critical external interfaces with the Board, analysts, rating agencies and the SEC. In a very active legislative and rigorous accounting rule-making environment, Tom was successful in leading the company's compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and managed the SEC relationship.

Transcorp may not yet have met the investors’yearnings, but the man at the helm of affairs has certainly brought his charisma to bear. He is determined to take the company to global standards. As he stressed when signing up at Pepsi, “What particularly attracted me to Pepsi, apart from being an environment where young people were given the opportunity to do big things, was the performance-driven culture, a culture of positive and negative consequences driven by performance, risk of failure and the excitement of being on the cutting edge between success and failure”, the future is indeed bright.

He ran the company's disclosure committee, the CEO/CFO attestation process and was among a handful of individuals, including the CEO, CFO, General Counsel and General Auditor, who were responsible for all external reporting decisions. Prior to American Express, Tom served as Executive Director of Purchasing, eBusiness and Strategy for Ford Motor Company's $96 Billion Purchasing Division. Tom played a key role in Ford Motor Company's recognition as a leader in minority supplier development. He sat on Ford's Global Strategy Committee and served as the secretary of the President's Operating committee. While at Ford Motor Company, Tom also ran Finance for Global Manufacturing as Assistant Controller of Global Vehicle Operations, was instrumental in the tripling of the profitability of Mustangs as Director of Strategy and Controller of Product Development for Performance and Luxury Cars (Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mustang, Lincoln and Thunderbird), reengineered Global Logistics, ran Global Car Pricing for the $150 billion Marketing and Sales Division and led the restructure of European Logistics.

Tom joined Ford Motor Company from Pepsi, where he held positions in Finance, Sales and Headquarter Staff. His last assignment at Pepsi was as CFO of a $2 billion Division.

In his assignment as National Group Manager of Sales Operations, Tom redesigned and implemented "The Driving Force" and refocused the sales force from non-value added activities to allow more time to sell and grow the business.