Sir Oluremi Festus Omotoso (KJW) was born on the 28^th of August, 1945 in Odo Ayedun-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, to the family of Theophilus and Susannah Omotoso. After his primary and secondary education in Ekiti State (then Ondo State), he studied privately for his Ordinary and Advanced General Certificate of Education (GCE) Examinations and made his papers within two years.

In September 1966, he was admitted to the University of Ibadan to major in Geography and graduated in June 1969 with a B.Sc (Hons) degree. As an undergraduate, he was very active and served as an officer of no less than six associations, including the governing body of his school hall of residence, Mellanby Hall.

After graduation, Sir Omotoso taught briefly at Christ’s High School Ibadan, and on July 1^st 1971, he was employed by Lever Brothers Nigeria Ltd. (now Unilever Plc) as a management trainee. Within a short time, he showed great potential for leadership and was able to rise quickly to the Board level of the company by October 1987. He attended various training programmes in countries all around the world, including an Executive Programme at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, in the USA.