The Story of Becoming with Johnbull Okpara (Citigroup Controller & Chief Accounting Officer)

Great question. Have I always wanted to be in banking? No, is the answer. I have a degree in chemistry. I actually went to a great university, the University of Jos in Nigeria, where I studied applied chemistry, and the goal was to go into the oil and industrial services. Coming out, I applied to Shell, Chevron, had interviews, but at the time, a company called Arthur Andersen had just come into Nigeria and they were the place to be, so to speak. A lot of my friends were applying, those that got in were raving about the place. So... at some point Arthur Andersen demised because of Enron, and now it's back. So I started my career with Arthur Andersen with auditing and consulting. Worked for all services firms. A lot has happened in those 28 years, and now I'm in banking. We're happy to get into more details, but it wasn't the plan.

I'm extremely pleased, I'm very thankful, I'm very grateful for where I am. I'm living the dreams of my grandparents, of my parents, literally speaking. So I'm really, really happy where fate is taking me, where God has placed me. I think things have turned out really well. I'm not one to regret, but I think it's really worked out. And by the way, all the twists and turns and all the ups and downs have really been instrumental in getting me to where I am. So short answer is very, very happy. Long answer is, there's a path that you start out with...

It was in Nigeria. Like I said, in Nigeria, I went to one of the best schools in the world, University of Jos. I like to say that the school has produced a lot of notable executives. Actually, the CEO of Herbalife, which is a Fortune 1000 company, went to University of Jos. I can put out a lot of... But having said that, I got my MBA here in New York, New York University Stern School of Business. I'm a CPA in Pennsylvania, I'm a CIA in New York. So I've got a lot of learning and qualifications from the States as well.

Yeah, so like I said, I was one of nine children. I was born in Imo State, the eastern part of Nigeria. I was raised in the eastern part of Nigeria. Went to secondary school, Holy Ghost College, Owerri, where I went. You chuckle, you probably know something about the school. But I graduated and went straight to University of Jos, which was in the north. My parents had lived in the north, and I had my grandmother living in Kaduna, my aunt, my brothers, et cetera. So it was easy for me to go to UniJos because I had a home in Kaduna, which was like three hours from Jos. So I had a second home in Kaduna where I spent most of the holidays while going to UniJos. When I graduated, where does everyone go? You go to Lagos, and that's where I went. I mentioned Arthur Andersen, but before that, actually, in Nigeria you have to do a national youth service, and I did it. I was at Bayero University, Kano. It was great, I had a blast, friends, everything. But that was a year, and then moved to Lagos after that and joined Arthur Andersen shortly thereafter. I had a great time in Lagos working for Arthur Andersen for about two and a half, three years. Joined an oil services company as their controller. In Lagos, it was an oil services company based in New Orleans. Worked for them a little bit in Lagos, and then my wife and I, we were dating at the time, she decided she was going to come to New York for graduate school. I was flying to New Orleans where my company was headquartered, and the company offered me a role in New Orleans, so I was going to move from Lagos to New Orleans. On our way to the airport, my wife convinced me to quit the job and stay in New York. And that's how my story of becoming a New Yorker started.

Yeah, you're right. I think, you know, growing up, my mom, she owned a big restaurant. She got up at 5 a.m., went to the cloth shop at midnight. So we all worked around that restaurant. If you're not in school, you're working. So we learned work ethic. And my escape from doing work at the restaurant was reading. If I said I had a book to read, my mom said, okay, you're excused. So I learned early to escape the shores of serving guests or washing dishes or doing whatever by reading. So if I was reading, I was excused. I kind of found escape in reading because I didn't want to do the work. My dad owned a business center, et cetera. So there were chores and helping out in the restaurant, but also there were books and materials around me. I remember growing up, people would bring, if someone wanted to give me a gift, they'd bring a book. They knew me really well, they'd buy me a book. So I read a lot of books. And that's helped me a lot because in what I do, I mentioned Citigroup is the most global bank out there. We've got operations in 90 countries. I do a fair amount of reading, reading financial reports, reading analyst reports, reading memos, et cetera. So it's really been helpful in my career, but it's something that is now part of me.

I like numbers with a dollar sign in front of them, of course. But growing up in the restaurant, my mom's story, I like to be the one collecting the money and doing the accounting. So that would be their work. I think it was Bill Gates that said, if you want something done, get a lazy person, they'll do it fast. If you want something done fast, get someone who's lazy to find a quick way to do it. So I kind of like numbers, just again by practice, but it all comes together.

Big time. I think I talk about my mom because her work ethic is incredible. She's here in the States and she's still, she can't be still. She likes to take a walk in the morning, etc. But yeah, I always say that kids learn not from what you say but what they see. If I tell you I haven't learned from my parents having been around them for that long...

I'll be real. It's a multitude of things, but it comes down to what do you do best? Maximize your strengths. What are you really good at? Just find your strength and maximize it. That's number one. And don't focus on your weaknesses. Let's just maximize what you do really well. I have a work ethic that most people can't match. You gotta work hard. I call myself a learning machine. I like to learn new things and learn about things and people, so I get into new things. Two things: one, you gotta focus on results that matter. So whatever you do, you gotta understand what are the objectives, what are the expected outcomes of your stakeholders, what are they really wanting to get out of bringing you in, and just focus on it. Just drive results for them, whether it's your customers, your employees, your board of directors, your leadership. Drive results that matter. What matters to them? Very important. And the second thing is relationships. You cannot underestimate the importance of relationships. You just got to get to know people beyond the transactional level of day-to-day work. Get to know people, let them get to know you. Every day, but you know what I've learned? Don't take anything personal. Because if you take it personal, you're just going to be in a sad state a lot of the time. So I've learned not to take things personal and just be very objective and logical about them and really detach from things. I could tell you hundreds of experiences that I've had in the corporate setting where I've been treated like I wouldn't want to be treated, and I've taken it, but just try not to take it personal and focus on the objectives and keep going.

I was the head of the division. I went into the pantry area, and I met a young man. I said, how you doing? He said, how you doing? I said, so what area do you work in? You're on this floor. It was my first week. He said he works in XYZ area. He said, what area do you work in? I said, I work in this area, and my name is Johnbull Okpara. He said, oh great. We started talking, and then he goes, so you work for the new head of that division? Well, I'm the head of that division. And it was just announced, there was a memo that came out, so the entire... There was a big town hall a week later, and I was on stage. I could look across, I could see him. It's a big hall, but I just for some reason spotted him, and I just started looking him in the eye when I was speaking, and he was very nervous. After the town hall, I went to him and we shook hands. He was very nervous. I told him, listen, don't worry about it. We all make mistakes, not a big deal. He ended up working for me over the years, and we had a good relationship. But it's so important not to take things personally. That's my biggest advice to a lot of young Black and young immigrant professionals. People come to... What do they do to the function? It's hard, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying something here that is easy. It takes practice, but you got to start by believing that that's the direction you got to go.

Things is so important. I live in a community here. There's a golf course behind my house. An executive at the firm that I was at, Morgan Stanley, when I moved to this town, he said, wow, they're not going to let you into the golf course. I said, why? He said, because you're Black. And he's a good friend, he's Jewish. He said, they didn't let me in the golf course, they wouldn't let you in the club. Okay, great. But I go there, and I told him, I joked to him, I said, I have more charm than you, that's why I can get in there. But the reality is, you build relationships with people that don't look like you, don't act like you. It's hard, I'm not saying... You get to know them, you build a relationship. And when you build a relationship with people, you'd be amazed, they would trust you because they know you've gone out to lunch with them, you had drinks with them, you play golf with them, you played tennis with them, you've been to a concert with them. You just find things you have in common. There's always something you have in common with someone, and then you tap into that. And then you build a relationship. Now you have the power, because now they don't want to offend you, now they listen to what you have to say, now you're in the room. And it takes work and patience, but I'm telling you, it's very strategic. You got to get there. So for me, it's building relationships. That's the bottom line.

That's a fantastic question because my daughter, her college essay was on her name. She wrote, her name is Chidimma, and her college essay was, What's in My Name? Because she had a story where in her high school, one of her teachers mispronounced her name and moved on. And she said, no, it's a big deal, you have to pronounce it. So she wrote a paper on her name. It would be a comedy if I start to rattle off all the pronunciations. I'm already laughing. But I don't take it personal, that's where I go with it. Because what I do is, someone pronounces my name, I know they don't know how to pronounce it, or they're ignorant, they're not trying to learn it, they're not putting the effort to really pronounce it. I get it. But I try not to take it personal, and then I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them the correction and say, listen, here's how you pronounce it. Like you, I'm very particular about it, but I don't let it affect me or my relationships. I just correct and move on. The Johnbull part is easy to pronounce. Of course, Okpara just means God is good, and that's a very, very powerful name.

I would say, stick with it. A lot of Nigerians kind of go with the flow. Something is hard, they get into a field and it gets challenging, and they move into something else, and then it gets challenging, they move into something else. Oh, they see something is a trend, they're moving to that trend. Just stick with it. You're not going to make it overnight. The success that you see now is a lot of work that happened over the years. So just stay with it, be able to work hard, get better, learn. Because whatever you do, whatever field it is, if it's in corporate, just learn to be the best you can be. There's a lot of things you can learn. Just be a learning machine. Learn as much as you can. Communication skills, all the things that you see the folks that have succeeded, all the things you see them do well, just figure out how to learn those things and practice those things. When I go to board meetings, I look around at the chairman and CEO speaking, I listen to them, how they do it, what are they doing really well? If I go to a conference and I see a great speaker, I pick up what they've done really well. Be a learning machine. But stay with it. Just stay with it, because that second you want to give up might be the second that it's about to turn for you.

I would say, it's hard to give up because there are a good number of players that don't play by the rules, and there are players that play by the rules. But I would say, keep your integrity. Because if I keep my integrity and do it the right way, and then the next guy does it the right way, and the next lady does it the right way, then you're going to see the network of integrity cascade. Invoice the amount that you did work for, don't over invoice. I'm not saying I know anyone who's done that. But just stay and play by the rules. Do it in your lane. If you're doing it in your lane, your friend is going to do it in that lane, and that's how you start the cascade of that integrity. Because I got to tell you, the biggest issue we have with foreign investment coming into Nigeria or folks coming into Nigeria to do business is that integrity. I have a lot of friends in Nigeria, some in politics, business. Folks move back from here to Nigeria, and what I tell them is, do not regress to the mean. If your standard is here, keep your standards. If you want to get to 100 cars, 200 Uber cars that are in your fleet, keep doing it. And don't look left and right until that person is drilling oil or they're doing something else. Stay in your lane and be the best you can be in your lane, and keep your integrity. That's my advice.

Thank you.