President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Steve Steve Babaeko, has explained that the association chose Henley Business School (HBS) as partners for its AdCademy Masterclass Series because HBS is one of the heritage business training institutions in the world.

Babaeko, who recently fielded questions on the second edition of the AdCademy Masterclass billed to hold virtually between 26 and 29 August, stated that HBS’ global reputation is built on its robust business curriculum through which it has built numerous business leaders around the world.

“We are really proud of the partnership with Henley Business School and if you research well, you’ll find out that HBS is one of the heritage business schools across the world with a really robust business portfolio and curriculum, which is the benefit we are looking for.

“When it comes to advertising and marketing communications, we don’t have shortage of people who can bring some learnings and experience.

“But we also realize that for the advertising industry, we need to broaden the business side of things for our people, so that they are not just learning marketing communications, but also learning how to run a business,” he said.

He explained that the partnership will help the marketing communications industry widen its talent pool by developing human capital here and providing exposure to the best practices in business management.

The second edition of the AdCademy Masterclass Series, he explained, is designed to provide mid-level management staff of advertising agencies and other professionals with communication functions in the public and private sectors with global standard marketing communications and business building skills as well as expand the talent pool in the industry.

Babaeko noted that the expansion of the talent pool will help address the practice of agencies poaching from one another as well as clients poaching of the staff of agencies.

Aside from the strong HBS team, the Masterclass will also have some of the most accomplished names on the domestic circuit in attendance.

Among these are Mr. Bayo Adekambi, Chief Transformation Officer, MTN Nigeria; Professor Emevbo Biakolo of the Lagos Business School, Mr. Ayuli Jemide, Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Business Law Section; Mr. Austin Ufomba, Chief Executive Officer, Tytron Group; and Mrs. Chioma Afe of Access Bank.