Team Leader at Evolution International, Fred Darko has said that he did not walk away from Charterhouse because there was bad blood between him and their bosses.
Fred Darko quitted Charterhouse in September last year and took four other guys with him to start Evolution International, and that has since generated some gossip that he courted some Charterhouse clients and took on the back of those clients.
But Fred told Adom Entertainment News contrary to the rumours “Theresa, Iyiola and Philip (the bosses at Charterhouse) are still my bosses and friends and I owe everything I know in this business to Charterhouse.
“I will never turn my back and say bad things about them because 11 years ago I walked into Charterhouse from nowhere and with no experience in production but they gave me the opportunity.”
Fred said he counted the 11 years he was in Charterhouse as schooling in the event production business, adding that “Charterhouse is a like school and everyone who leaves Charterhouse either succeeds on their own or get very lucrative jobs with another organisations because everybody knows what Charterhouse is made of.”
Fred noted that when he decided to leave Charterhouse several people talked him out of it but his mind was made up that 11 years was enough and he needed to do something more challenging and also create some competition in the system.
“The intention was not to fight Charterhouse and some people rumour but to create another option,” he said.
He said even though he left Charterhouse he is still on very good terms with his former bosses and anytime they met at functions they shared felicitations, adding that “a team from Charterhouse even came to celebrate our first year anniversary bash with us.”
“I think my former boss should be proud of me and the rest of the team who left Charterhouse to start Evolution because everyone of us would not deny that he impacted our lives tremendously and we owe our success in the market today to the opportunity we got at Charterhouse,” he said.
Fred said more importantly he felt that his former boss, Iyiola should be proud of himself that people he trained are now on their own and are competing with him.
Asked if his former boss is actually proud of him he said they have not had a discussion on those lines but “I think he should be.”
He said the event production market in Ghana was a small one so competitors could not avoid each other, but rather depend on each other, when necessary, for success.
On the question of whether he courted some Charterhouse clients and took them along to Evolution, Fred said Evolution started from ground zero and no client of Charterhouse gave them a job until they had done things for completely new clients like Daviva and Brussels Airlines among others.
“We have our clientele and Charterhouse has their clientele but now we also have common clientele so it tells you we don’t have a choice but to co-exist and collaborate sometimes,” he said.
Asked if he would be willing to collaborate with Charterhouse to do an event, Fred said that is just a matter of time because that is happening in other countries and a day is coming in Ghana when big production houses would have to work together on events.
“Now quite a number of the big events on the continent, including Ghana are being handled by production houses from South Africa because South Africa is a developed market, but the day is coming when we here can collaborate and deliver on huge events.
“If I get a big job and I do not have the capacity to deliver the client does not have to know Charterhouse is helping me – all I need to do is to call for their help and deliver to the client’s satisfaction – we are not fighting – we are competing but we can also collaborate,” Fred said.
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