The Other Room - Redefining Women and Work

Work Focus: Technology, Software Engineering, Financial Technology, Digital Transformation

I spoke to Lola Ekugo, who is the Head of the Digital Innovation Labs at FirstBank Nigeria. She is at the forefront of the Bank’s Digital transformation journey through innovation and technology. She is transforming the bank through accelerating the digital journey, Fintech start-up collaborations and innovating on solutions to real-life industry challenges.

Lola started her career as a software engineer over 13 years ago at Investec Asset Management, London where she was responsible for the development of digital solutions in the asset management portfolio. Since then she has worked in various capacities across technology roles in the financial services industry across Europe and Africa in several companies including Dresdner Kleinwort, Commerzbank and BNP Paribas. In 2010, she received a Portfolio Restructuring Unit Excellence award at Commerzbank for her contribution towards the largest ever CDS auction.

Lola is a first-class graduate of Business Information Systems at Middlesex University with a scholarship for outstanding academic performance and an MBA from Imperial College Business School.

Lola has founded two startups, including Transthat.com, a peer to peer logistics platform and serves on the Tech Committee of Women in Management, Business & Public Service (WimBiz), the Digital Transformation Committee of Junior Achievement Nigeria. She is also involved in initiatives to boost tech entrepreneurship and develop the STEM agenda across the continent. She more recently launched an online platform called TechStart aimed at providing resources for people interested in starting technology careers.

She is also one of the 30 women profiled by Fintech Africa as one of the exceptional women playing leading roles in their various companies and shaping the fintech sector in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

Lola has travelled to over 30 countries and has seen the value of efficient utilisation using innovative technologies across different sectors and some of the best methods of implementing new technology in the world at large.

Links:

https://www.techstart.africa/

https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/

https://wimbiz.org/

https://ja-nigeria.org/

This is the trailer for The Other Room. The Other Room is a fun and engaging weekly show, packaged in 10-week seasons, where host Oreoluwa Lesi speaks to women in a variety of career paths in each episode.

The Other Room features conversations with exceptional African women who are defining and redefining their roles in life. These are women who are charting their work and life journeys with purpose.

We will look at their career trajectory, the challenges they have had along the way and the things they have learnt on the path to where they are now.

Work Focus: Architecture, Banking, Procurement

This episode features a conversation with Yetunde Pinheiro. Yetunde Pinheiro is an experienced Senior and Chartered Procurement and Supply Professional. She is currently a Senior Global Manager within Supply Management in Sodexo, an international organisation with HQ in France. 

She has a varied career spanning over 21 years, and has worked as an architect, a banker, and currently a Procurement specialist; across the Architectural, Financial and the Facilities management services industries in organisations which include Ecobank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Honeywell Business Solutions and Barclays International. 

Yetunde holds a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences. She also holds a Graduate diploma from the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply and an MBA from University of Warwick, UK. She is a member of the Institute of Leadership & Management and CIPS. She is married and a mother of two.

Links:

https://www.sodexo.com/home.html