Over the duration of a successful career as a Chartered Accountant, Suliyat Olalekan has learned the value of hard work, commitment and, above all, kindness
From as far back as she can remember, Suliyat Olalekan wanted to become a Chartered Accountant.
“I was really good at maths from a very young age and I was always very certain that I wanted to have a career as an accountant,” says Olalekan.
“I didn’t want to be an academic, studying mathematics or statistics in a university. I wanted to apply my skills in the real world. Accountancy seemed to me to offer a lot of possibilities, but I can’t say I had any real sense back then of what the role would actually involve day-to-day.”
Born in southwestern Nigeria, Olalekan was raised in a tight-knit family in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. One of five siblings, she moved to Ireland as a teenager, settling in south Dublin, and went on to study Leaving Cert Accounting.
Though Olalekan had “absolute conviction” about her career aspirations, acclimatising to the Irish way of life after relocating from Ibadan as a young teen came as a culture shock.
“I found the education system in Ireland fantastic, but it was very different to the education I had experienced in Nigeria, which was highly academic,” she says.
“When I started secondary school in Ireland, I was ahead of the syllabus so it was an easy transition starting out. I was able to focus instead on integrating socially and learning about the culture and way of life in this new country that was so different.”
Learning to adapt at a young age has stood to Olalekan over the course of an accomplished career as a Chartered Accountant that has taken her from practice to industry, and from Dublin to London.
“It is so important to do your research in any profession. This is my go-to approach when I am considering a potential new role, or finding my feet in a new job, and it’s the reason I think I’ve been able to adapt well to new roles and responsibilities,” she says.
“I reach out to people and lean into my network, so that I can find out as much as I can about a new role on offer—and not just the role itself, but the organisation, and the wider industry. The same goes for how I approach my work day-to-day. I always try to learn from other people who are experts in their role, their field, or sector.
“If I need advice on a tax issue, for example, I will go to a tax expert—and I never jump into anything. When I start a new job, I stand back and take stock of what is happening around me; what the dynamics are; how things work. I never dive in. I take my time and I do my research. This balanced approach has worked well for me in my career.”
Now Chief Accountant at SFL Corporation, an international NYSE-listed maritime company, Olalekan manages a team in London and Oslo responsible for accounting and reporting on US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP).
She began her career in practice, training with Deloitte in Ireland after graduating from Dublin Business School in 2007 with a first-class honours degree in accounting and finance.
“I knew I wanted to train with a ‘Big Four’ firm and I really enjoyed my time with Deloitte. Joining their Audit Graduate Programme was a really wonderful start to my career and they sponsored my Master of Accounting at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business.
“From there, I went straight into the Final Admitting Examination (FAE) with Chartered Accountants Ireland in 2012 —and then I reached a point where I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next.”
Rather than mapping out a strict career plan, Olalekan instead decided to hang back and gain more experience where she was, before deciding on her next move.
“A lot of my friends and peers around that time were moving to Australia, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda — and thinking ahead to ‘what’s next?’ I was happy enough where I was though, so I stayed with Deloitte, moving from Audit Senior on to Assistant Manager and then Manager.”
It was when Olalekan was offered a secondment with Bank of Ireland that she got her first taste of working life beyond practice. “I got this fantastic opportunity to see what it was like on the ‘other side’ working in capital investment, and I found I really enjoyed it,” she says.
The experience prompted Olalekan to look further afield and, when she decided to relocate to London in 2014, she found herself open to a move into shipping – a sector she had no experience in at the time.
“It was my brother who told me about this job as Group Reporting Manager with SFL Corporation and, straight away, I was intrigued,” she says.
“I knew nothing about the maritime sector at the time, but shipping is such a traditional and tangible industry. I thought ‘that’s how food gets to my table and how furniture gets to my home’.
“SFL Corporation is also listed in the US, which meant I could get experience in US GAAP. I already had experience in UK GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Ireland. I thought US GAAP would be a challenge that would really stand to me.” Olalekan was promoted to her current role as Chief Accountant with SFL Corporation in London in 2017.
“They have been very persuasive in keeping me, and I really enjoy the work I do here because it is just so interesting,” she says.
“My day-to-day can go from journal approvals on really important qualitative items to filing statements to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR [Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval] system.
“I’m involved in preparing financial data for press releases, and in constantly reviewing and ensuring the accuracy of the information we make available to the public. I advise our commercial and operational teams on the accounting implications of new business contracts and potential transactions. My role is so varied and I find that incredibly rewarding professionally.”
As her career has progressed, Olalekan has settled into an open, approachable leadership style centred on building strong relationships with the people on her team, as well as those she reports to and colleagues in the wider organisation.
“There are many ways you can approach leadership and different styles work for different people—but I have always leaned into genuine, positive relationships and that continues to work really well for me to this day.
“I make sure that I am seen as a ‘can-do’ person; someone people won’t hesitate to approach to ask for help. This has been very beneficial because people know I don’t shy away from work and that I’m not afraid of challenges.
“In any new role, you can’t know everything straight away. That is what growing and learning as a professional is all about. If you are seen as a positive can-do person who can be relied on to work hard, it is more likely that you will be offered promotions because your managers will trust that, even if you are not 100 percent ready, you will rise to the occasion, learn, and do what is needed.”
Approachability, and a willingness to help others and collaborate to solve problems, is equally important for managers who want to support, encourage, and get the best from the people on their team.
“Just as my managers know they can trust me, my team learns the importance of trustworthiness from me. It creates a positive chain reaction,” says Olalekan.
“They know they can come to me with problems and challenges, and that means they are also more likely to come to me with ideas, insights and solutions that can benefit the business. That is very rewarding for me as a manager.”
A mother to two young children, Olalekan still finds time outside her work and home commitments to support her profession. A committed member of the London Society of Chartered Accountants Ireland, she was among four members recently elected to Council.
“I am honoured to have been elected and to have the opportunity to give something back to the profession that has been so good to me in my career,” she says.
“We train people to be robust, to be intimate with numbers, to be able to analyse the data and make sense of the figures. You don’t need to be the CFO of a FTSE 100 to be a success in this profession.
“My own ambition now is to add value to the organisation I work for, and support the people I work with. Even though I was so sure so young that I wanted to be an accountant, I couldn’t have known then how fulfilling my career would turn out to be. I am exactly where I want to be.”
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