Stephen Oluwatobi
Year & Set: 2007 Imperial set
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Stephen Oluwatobi is an educator, student, executive and entrepreneur. Over the years, he has amassed experiences in academia and the industry, ranging from edtech, govtech, proptech and fintech. His teachings, research and service covers economics, entrepreneurship and innovation. He earned his PhD in Innovation Economics, where he studied how Sub-Saharan African countries could achieve innovation-driven growth.
At Covenant University, he led the Centre for Entrepreneurship and revamped the curriculum and education model to “make entrepreneurs” instead of the “theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurship.” He also led the commercialisation arm of Covenant University’s Innovation Centre to re-engineer the University’s ecosystem to support innovation, take research beyond the shelf and make innovation happen.
Stephen is also the founder and Chairman of Hebron Startup Lab, the first University Startup Accelerator in Nigeria from where great African entrepreneurs have emerged, who have started high-growth companies, including Keza, Mobile Waiters, Earnipay to mention a few.
Stephen also founded Edustart Global to cultivate high-growth entrepreneurs to create transformational businesses to solve Africa’s problems. Via this platform, he consults and supports Education Institutions on the subject of Entrepreneurship Education, Innovation as well as innovation Ecosystem Development in order to make them factories for great innovators and innovations.
Beyond academia, Stephen has been very active in the industry. He served as the Group CEO of Pertinence Group, and grew the company’s revenue by 400% in 2 years. He is the author of 3 books and a number of research-based publications on innovation. As an AI (artificial intelligence) leader, he currently develops and drives AI implementation strategies for forward-thinking organizations to optimize their processes, maximize growth opportunities, and innovate.
Stephen engages his blend of experiences to see gaps, advise and provide the needed support to scale better outcomes. He is married with children.