From Wakeman Street, and back.
His Story, in Short Chapters
From Yaba to the boardroom, and back to the city that raised him.
1968
Wakeman Street, Yaba
Funso was born in Lagos on 16 June 1968 and grew up on Wakeman Street, now Borno Way, in Yaba. His father, Dr Henry Aderounmu Aremu Doherty, was a Lagos-born medical doctor with a private practice on Aje Street. His mother, Gladys, retired from the National Electric Power Authority after 35 years in the civil service.
1979–1990
School and University
He was Head Boy at Corona School, Victoria Island, then went to King's College Lagos, his father's alma mater, as a Federal Government Academic Scholar. His classmates elected him Form Captain four terms in a row.
At the University of Lagos he read Accounting and graduated with Second Class Upper honours in 1990.
1990–1994
Service, Then a First Job
For National Service he was Platoon Leader at Yikpata camp, then taught for a year at a rural community secondary school in Okehi. He joined Arthur Andersen in Lagos in 1991 on about ₦1,800 a month, rose to Senior and completed the qualifying examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.
1994–2005
Investment Management
He joined Asset & Resource Management at its start in 1994 and became one of the pioneers of Nigeria's mutual fund industry. He married Dr Orode Omolara Williams in 1995.
After an MBA at Harvard Business School (2001) he worked in investment management at Goldman Sachs in New York, where he was downtown on 9/11, and then as a Vice President at PNC Advisors in Pennsylvania.
2005–2022
Pensions
He came home in 2005 as the pioneer Managing Director of ARM Pension Managers and built it into one of Nigeria's leading pension fund administrators. Fellow operators chose him as the first Chairman of the Pension Fund Operators Association.
He later led ValuAlliance Asset Management (2014–2017), and until 2022 was Managing Director of PAL Pensions, overseeing more than half a trillion naira in assets. He is a CFA charterholder and a co-founding trustee of CFA Society Nigeria.
2023–2026
Into Public Life
Funso ran for Governor of Lagos in 2023 and has remained actively involved in politics and governance. In April 2026 he declared again, and in May 2026 he joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
At Home
Reading and Running
Funso reads widely and has been a runner for years. These days he does a 5k three or four times a week.
Funso and Dr Orode Doherty
Funso married Dr Orode Omolara Williams, of the Williams family of Olowogbowo, Lagos, in 1995. She is the daughter of the late Professor Babatunde Williams and of Professor Grace Alele-Williams, the renowned professor of mathematics education and former Vice Chancellor, of blessed memory.
In 1999 they went to Harvard together, Funso to the Business School and Orode to the School of Public Health. Both graduated in 2001. They have three children: Kiitan, Siji and Tari.
His Running Mate, Tolani Animashaun
The Nigeria Democratic Congress unveiled Mrs Tolani Animashaun as its candidate for Deputy Governor alongside Ọ̀nà Tuntun on 8 October 2026. She brings experience in education, finance and community mobilisation, and has pledged to expand opportunity for young people, improve education and make sure public money is accounted for.
Report of the unveiling. Her full biography will be published here.
Why I'm Running
I am asking for your support to become Governor of Lagos because I want more Lagosians to have the opportunities that helped shape my own life.
I grew up in Yaba, attended King's College and studied at the University of Lagos. Public institutions helped prepare me for a career building and leading businesses entrusted with people's savings and pensions. I know the responsibility that comes with managing money that belongs to others.
For years, I have asked questions about how our government spends public money. Behind every figure in a budget are people whose needs that money should meet. Money wasted on an inflated contract is money unavailable for medicines or maintaining a road. I am seeking this office to take responsibility for changing those priorities, and to submit myself to the same scrutiny I have demanded of others.
The Lagos that worked for me was not lost. It was let go. And what was let go can be rebuilt.
From Funso Doherty's Letter to Lagosians and his Ọ̀nà Tuntun speech, 2026.