Leadership Advisory · Executive Search

    Leaders are
    built, not born. Leadership advisory and executive search with Abraham Iyiola.

    I help founders and executives build organizations people actually want to work for, across countries, stages, and the moments that matter.

    Start a conversation→How we work together
    Abraham Iyiola, leadership advisor, Vancouver, BC
    Vancouver, BC
    Trusted by founders & boards atFifteen years building leadership teams across four continents.
    • Jumia
    • Meta
    • Twitter
    • BCAA
    • ESSEC Paris
    • AIESEC Int'l
    15+

    Years building, placing, and advising executive talent globally

    1,500+

    Roles filled across the firms I've built, spanning four continents and twenty markets

    92%

    One-year retention on senior placements over the past three years

    150+

    Senior executives I've personally placed, CTOs, VPs, founders, board members

    Engagements

    Two ways
    we work together.

    No retainer-shaped hammers looking for nails. Each engagement is built around what your business actually needs, coaching, hiring, or both.

    i.

    Leadership Advisory.

    For founders & senior executives

    Twelve-week and ongoing coaching for founders, CEOs, and senior executives navigating scale, transition, or transformation. Including leaders making major cross-border moves, into North America, into new markets, into the next chapter of their career.

    ii.

    Executive Search & Boards.

    For organizations hiring

    Retained search for senior leadership and board placements across North America, Europe, and Africa. Often paired with advisory work to onboard the leader through their first twelve months.

    Why leadership,
    why now.

    Abraham Iyiola portrait

    Fifteen years ago I was reading résumés in Rotterdam, placing young people into internships across one hundred and thirty countries. That job taught me the first thing I know about leadership: most of it isn't about the leader at all. It's about the people they choose, the culture they build, and the standards they hold.

    Since then I've scaled Jumia from zero to twelve hundred employees in two years. Sat across the table from the founders of Africa's biggest tech companies. Built a recruitment firm working with clients on four continents. And (quietly, almost accidentally) become the person founders call when something hard is happening at the top of the org chart.

    What I've seen, again and again, is this: leaders aren't born, they're built. Built by feedback they were brave enough to take. Built by mistakes they were honest enough to own. Built by mentors who told them the truth.

    That's the work I do now.

    1. 01

      People before pedigree.

      The résumé tells you what someone has done. The room tells you who they actually are. I hire for the second.

    2. 02

      Scale is a culture problem.

      Going from twenty to twelve hundred didn't break on org charts, it broke on the standards we tolerated quietly.

    3. 03

      Feedback is the work.

      Every leader I've watched grow has the same habit: they ask for the truth more often than they're given it.

    4. 04

      Quiet conviction wins.

      The founders who last aren't the loudest in the room. They're the ones who keep showing up with the same standard.

    Newsletter · Weekly · Free

    To Lead
    or Not to Lead.

    One leadership lesson a week, drawn from the operator's seat, from history's most fascinating leaders, and from the conversations I have with executives navigating the hardest moments at the top of the org chart. Built for the way modern leaders actually think.

    Read past issuesOpen in Substack
    Latest issue · Free
    What Genghis Khan
    knew about
    meritocracy.
    8 min read
    Free guide

    The 12 questions I ask
    before taking a leadership engagement.

    The same diagnostic I use with founders and boards before any retainer or search begins. Twenty pages, no fluff, free.

    • How to read a CEO résumé in seven minutes, and the four lines I actually trust.
    • The two questions that separate operators from observers, and how to ask them.
    • A three-week diagnostic for finding the real bottleneck on your leadership team.
    • The one reference call most founders skip, and what it would have told them.
    Download the PDFOr get it via the newsletter

    No email gate on the PDF, read it first, decide later if the newsletter earns a place in your inbox.

    Three audiences.
    One posture.

    High standards held with high support. Honest feedback delivered with genuine belief. The work is different for each, but the way I show up is the same.

    i

    Founders & CEOs

    Scaling past your first hundred employees. Replacing yourself in functions you used to own. Making the leadership team you have become the one you need.

    Coaching & advisory →
    ii

    Organizations

    Hiring senior leadership. Building a board. Filling roles where the wrong call costs you eighteen months. Retained search done with care.

    Executive search →
    iii

    Leaders rebuilding across borders

    Senior operators who've moved countries, into Vancouver, Toronto, New York, London, and are rebuilding their executive altitude in a context where the unwritten rules are different from the ones they learned. The work that doesn't show up in coaching textbooks but defines whether the move pays off.

    Coaching & advisory →

    Who this is for
    and who it isn't.

    The fastest way to know if we should talk is to read both columns. If the left list sounds like you and the right list doesn't, the discovery call will be a good thirty minutes for both of us.

    Yes, let's talk
    • You are accountable for outcomes, and unwilling to delegate that.
    • You're willing to hear the truth before the polite version.
    • You're playing a long game and you can tell the difference between speed and progress.
    • You believe people, not frameworks, are the real lever.
    Not this practice
    • You want a hype man, a frameworks deck, or a ten-step LinkedIn carousel.
    • You want to outsource the conviction, to me, a board, or a consultant.
    • You're optimizing for the title, the round, or the LinkedIn announcement.
    • You need contingent recruiting, mid-level ICs, or a cheap résumé polish.

    If the right column is closer to where you are, that's useful information, and there are excellent people I can point you to instead. Just ask.

    Let's talk about what
    you're building.

    Discovery calls are thirty minutes, free, and rarely a waste. We figure out together whether there's a fit, and if there isn't, I'll tell you who you should call instead.

    Privacy: your details are stored securely and used only to reply to your request. Nothing is shared with third parties or used for marketing. Email ai@abrahamiyiola.com anytime to access or delete your information.

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    The leaders worth following are the ones who keep building.

    If something hard is happening at the top of your org chart, or in your own seat, start a conversation.

    Start a conversation→