LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Tara Fela-Durotoye is a Beauty Entrepreneur who pioneered the professional make up industry in Nigeria in the late 90's. She is the founder and current CEO of House of Tara International. She is considered a major force in the Nigerian female entrepreneurship community having created an impact business that has empowered tens of thousands of beauty entrepreneurs through the "Tara Beauty Entrepreneur" initiative. Tara continues to be a thought leader and major influencer through several in classroom and on line courses that focus on sharing her 20+ year experience with other budding entrepreneurs.
As a game changer in Nigerian business, Tara has served as a powerful role model for women in business, and worked as an advocate for creating awareness of the importance of building businesses that positively impact society. She's a huge advocate of impact entrepreneurship and is considered the poster girl for female entrepreneurship in West Africa. Under her leadership, House of Tara emerged one of jobberman’s best 100 companies to work for in Nigeria 2017 and continues to be considered the number one indigenous make up brand for Nigerian women.
House of Tara is a pioneer in the beauty and makeup industry in Nigeria and Africa as a whole and a trailblazer in the areas of retail, distribution channel management and education. House of Tara pioneered the bridal make up profession in Nigeria in 1998, and launched the first bridal directory in Nigeria in 1999, facilitated the first-ever series of bridal seminars in 2000. It established the country’s first make up studio and make up school in 2004 and launched the Tara Product line, a brand that promotes ethics and ethnicity, by empowering young women for economic independence without moral compromise. It also hosted Nigeria’s first Make-Up Conference in 2014. House of Tara currently has 27 studios currently in 11 states, with plans to build studios across Nigeria in Calabar, Akure, Ogbomosho, Bauchi, Jos, Abba, Makurdi and more, and outside Nigeria in South Africa, Kenya and Ghana by the end of 2020. Spread across the three main streams of The Make-up Studio, The Makeup Academy and the TARA product line comprising beauty products and professional make-up kits, the company employs over 150 employees, trained over 10,000 Students and has a groundbreaking network of over 15,000 reps across the country.
Tara has received several national and international Awards for her contribution to the industry and active role in Entrepreneurship and Empowerment; the Most Outstanding Business Woman of the Year 2018 by the African Economy Builders Awards Abidjan. Also in 2018, Tara received the African Makeup Icon by Ghana Makeup Awards as well as the Leadership Award for Entrepreneurship by Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria, and the most recent in 2019 the award of excellence for Social Impact and Job Creation, a National Recognition by the Vice President of Nigeria.
In 2013 Tara was on Forbes list of 20 Young Power Women in Africa, and more recently in 2020 Top 50 Africa Most Powerful Women alongside the President of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde, Chairman of First Bank, Mrs Ibukun Awosika, Ngozi Okonjo Eweala, Chimamanda Adichie, Lupita Nyongo, Obi Ezekwesili, amongst others. She is an alumnus of the of Lagos Business School Chief Executive Programme, INSEAD Abu Dhabi, Yale University, The Stanford SEED Transformation Programme, and the Harvard Kennedy School having completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy in the 21st century, She is a member of the France/Nigeria Investment club which was incorporated in 2018 by the French President Emmanuel Macron
She serves on several boards which includes Bridge International Academies, So Fresh Neighborhood and African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC) New York. She is an associate member of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ).
She was recognized by The World Economic Forum as a young global leader (2013) and Choiseul Institute of France Top 100 young African business leaders under 40 (2014).
Tara enjoys gardening and loves experiencing new cultures and meeting new people.
She is happily married to Fela Durotoye and is blessed with three sons.
Learn more about Tara and House of Tara International:
