Professor Albert Alos, the Spanish-born educator who helped lay the foundations of modern business education in Nigeria and became the founding Dean of Lagos Business School and pioneer Vice-Chancellor of Pan-Atlantic University, has died at the age of 86.
Alos died on September 5, 2026, only days before his 87th birthday, bringing to an end a remarkable Nigerian chapter that began in 1967, when he arrived in the country at the height of the Civil War.
He would spend almost six decades in Nigeria, first as an engineer and university lecturer and later as one of the most influential figures in the development of management education in the country.
A Spaniard by birth, Alos became a Nigerian citizen in 2022 in recognition of his longstanding contribution to the country, particularly to education, management and the cultivation of ethical leadership.
His career in Nigeria began in the university system. He taught electrical engineering at the University of Ife, the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan, where he eventually became Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
But it was his decision in the early 1990s to move from conventional university teaching into executive and management education that would define his most enduring contribution.
In 1993, Alos became Director-General and founding Dean of Lagos Business School. At the time, business education was still a relatively undeveloped field in Nigeria. Under his leadership, the school expanded its programmes and institutional reach, eventually becoming one of the country’s most prominent centres for management and executive education.
He later played a central role in the evolution of Lagos Business School into Pan-Atlantic University, serving as the institution’s pioneer Vice-Chancellor.
His influence extended beyond classrooms and lecture halls. For generations of Nigerian managers, entrepreneurs, academics and professionals, Alos represented a model of education that placed management competence alongside integrity, responsibility and service.
The institution he helped build would become an important pipeline for business and public-sector leadership, while his own career embodied an unusual transition—from electrical engineering to university administration and ultimately to the building of a major business school.
Earlier this year, Lagos Business School honoured that legacy by establishing the Professor Albert Alos Endowed Chair in Strategic Management, a recognition that came nearly six decades after he first made Nigeria his home.
His death has therefore closed more than the career of an academic. It marks the passing of a teacher who arrived in a country at war and remained long enough to witness—and help shape—some of the most significant changes in its educational and business landscape.
Funeral arrangements
The family, together with Rev. Fr. Anthony Odoh, Regional Vicar of Opus Dei in Nigeria, announced three days of funeral rites in Lagos.
Alos will lie in state on Tuesday, September 8, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Southcreek Study Centre, 1 Jolayemi Street, off Christ Avenue, Lekki Phase 1. Mass will be celebrated hourly from 3 p.m.
The funeral Mass will hold at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 9, at the Catholic Church of the Divine Mercy, Lekki Phase 1. His remains will be interred immediately afterwards at Ikoyi Cemetery.
For a man who arrived in Nigeria as a young educator in 1967 and spent the greater part of his life building institutions for generations he would never know, the final journey will take place in the country he ultimately came to call home.
