• EbonyLife TV boss emerges 56th on list of world genii
• How she emerged as the only African on the list
The dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the hope that they will one day, come to a bad end. When brilliance radiates from a woman, its refulgent rays blinds the sight and workings of the cynical mind like the comet’s flare through tangles of shrubs and scavenger nests.
Like a tsarina of unusual spirit and descent, Mo Abudu has infinite aces up her sleeves. Chic, brilliant and fabulous, the proudly African broadcast entrepreneur manifests imposingly and brilliantly in the international business scene in her spirited dash for fame, industry and honour. Mo Abudu exudes unusual brilliance, class and passion for excellence, triple traits of the queenly.
For being brilliant, Mosunmola ‘Mo’ Abudu, EbonyLife TV boss, was recently honoured by the international journal, Business Insider. The magazine in a titanic list entitled, Business Insider 100: The Creators, celebrates Mo Abudu and awards her 56th position on the list of the world’s most ingenious and successful creators.
Mo Abudu was celebrated ahead of global business titans and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Snapchat, Linkedin, Spanx, Spotify, Tory Burch, Fitbit, Zara, and Uber, to mention a few. Ahead of her are the CEO’s of Alibaba, Bloomberg, IKEA, Virgin Group, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Toms, Google, Starbucks and Facebook.
The EbonyLife TV boss was listed as the only African and the only African woman in the titanic list. The ranking, according to the globally respected business magazine, was initiated in celebration of ingenious men and women exploiting capitalism as a force for good.
Mo Abudu is celebrated as the chairman and CEO of one of Africa’s most successful new media ventures — the EbonyLife TV. The magazine celebrates her for courageously telling real African stories and changing the conversation around the continent and about the continent.
Growing up in the UK raised by Nigerian parents, Mo Abudu was subjected to slews of ignorant, “mind-boggling” comments and questions about African life and culture, which triggered her desire to dispel the world’s inaccurate perceptions about Africa.
“Somewhere deeply buried in my subconscious was a need to tell Africa’s story. My burning desire is just to tell everybody: Listen, we’re not a bunch of savages. We really are gifted,” said Abudu. Thus her unorthodox route to entertainment.
She returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s, working as the head of HR for ExxonMobil until 2000, when she left to launch her own HR consulting firm and, several years later, a hotel in Lagos as well. In 2006, she decided to ditch the corporate world and break into TV. She started “Moments with Mo,” which became the first daily talk show syndicated across the continent, landing high-profile guests like Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Hillary Clinton, then the US Secretary of State.
In 2013, Abudu launched EbonyLife, where she produces a wide array of TV shows, from her own talk show to an African version of “Desperate Housewives,” which she landed in a deal with Disney. She has also inked content distribution deals with CBS and Netflix. The network now provides premium content to to 49 countries across Africa, as well as the UK and the Caribbean.
What distinguishes the recent rankings as a major benchmark for others is that, unlike many other rankings that focus only on those who have achieved great financial success the recent one scoured the global business landscape for inventive leaders making bold moves to create value for four constituencies: shareholders, employees, consumers, and society.
Mo Abudu and other finalists were drawn from both public and private enterprises, across many industries, not only on the bases of what they have created, but how. Size wasn’t a deciding factor. Small companies adding great value to the world, like Mo Abudu’s, outranked many multinational conglomerates.
