Career Biography

Bolade Obat-Olowu is a distinguished General Counsel and corporate governance professional with more than two decades of experience advising boards and executive leadership across Nigeria’s most complex and regulated industries. Throughout her career, she has served as a trusted strategic partner to senior management in the oil and gas, fast-moving consumer goods, insurance, healthcare, and financial services sectors, consistently delivering value through sound governance frameworks, proactive risk management, and commercially pragmatic legal counsel.

Currently serving as General Counsel and Company Secretary to Hobark Group of Companies, Bolade oversees the legal and governance functions for the parent company and its six subsidiaries, all operating within the oil and gas services sector. In this capacity, she provides strategic legal advice to the board, manages regulatory compliance across multiple entities, and leads external counsel relationships to ensure efficient service delivery. Her tenure has been marked by significant operational improvements, including a reduction in legal spending by more than fifty percent through disciplined risk management and process optimisation. She has maintained a flawless compliance record and provided critical legal support for the establishment of a joint venture structure for marginal field operations—a complex transaction requiring careful navigation of regulatory and commercial considerations.

Prior to Hobark Group of Companies, Bolade held the dual role of Legal Adviser and Company Secretary at FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, one of West Africa’s leading dairy companies. Following the global merger of Friesland Foods and Campina, she was instrumental in establishing and structuring the legal department and company secretariat in Nigeria, building a high-performing in-house function from the ground up. Under her leadership, the company achieved substantial cost efficiencies while managing a broad portfolio of matters, including multi-billion-naira warehousing and distribution projects, a capital restructuring exercise in the form of a stock split, and the implementation of data protection and privacy policies. Her stakeholder management acumen proved essential in fostering productive relations between the board and minority shareholders, and she led cross-functional teams to embed compliance and governance standards across the organisation.

Her earlier career includes senior legal and governance roles at Unic Insurance Plc, where she successfully managed a litigation portfolio exceeding fifty product liability matters and supported the company’s transition from a composite insurer to a diversified financial services group during the insurance recapitalisation exercise. She has also held in-house positions with A.G. Leventis, Capital Express Assurance, and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, gaining deep exposure to employment law, contract management, and regulatory affairs.

A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria and a graduate member of the Chartered Governance Institute UK and Ireland, Bolade has contributed to professional discourse through published work on risk management as a strategic governance tool and the role of corporate governance in cultural integration. Her combination of legal expertise, governance leadership, and commercial insight has earned her a reputation as a General Counsel who not only protects organisational interests but actively enables sustainable business growth.