“Chartered status means people see me as someone who’s sought after for sound advice”

Guiding the crew of the stricken Apollo 13 space mission safely back to Earth was one of the greatest teamwork feats of all time. And a book by its orchestrator, NASA’s chief flight director Gene Kranz, caught the imagination of a young, rocket-obsessed Olusegun Otegbeye CMgr FCMI. Kranz’s management style, along with the book’s title, Failure is Not an Option, has continued to influence and inspire him throughout his own 21-year management career. 

“When I believe in a course of action, I’ll follow it all the way to the end,” he says. “One of the key things that resonated with me is the setting of rigorous and clear directions and goals. No one is a mind reader, so you always need to tell people exactly what your expectations are. Kranz is also very principled, which is something my dad always taught me.”

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Olusegun began his engineering career in his native Nigeria before moving to the UK 18 years ago to pursue an MSc in project management at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. His experience spans the oil and gas, transport infrastructure and utilities sectors.