ITAN names Owolabi COO

The Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) has announced the appointment of Mr. Oluwole Owolabi as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head, World Information Technology Service Alliance’s (WITSA) Africa Regional Secretariat located in Abuja.

In that capacity, Owolabi will be responsible for the effective day-to-day running of ITAN, and the performance of its businesses, the ITAN Consult, as dictated by the overall strategy agreed by the its National Executive Council (NEC).

He will also head the WITSA Secretariat Africa Regional office by maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the WITSA headquarters.

Speaking on the appointment, ITAN President, Dr. Jimson Olufuye in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, said the association is fortunate to have someone of Oluwole’s background and expertise come on board.

“Oluwole will be a perfect fit for us, as we rapidly grow our association. We plan to establish ITAN Consult, the soon to be established business arm of ITAN, in the next few months,” said Olufuye.

Until his appointment, Oluwole was the chief executive officer (CEO) and Managing Director, of the United Kingdom (UK)-based Accenttech Corporation and former Chairman ITAN Strategic Initiative Committee (ISIC).

He is also pro-active technical thinker and a visionary, thus he has an exceptional leadership quality and a track record of achievement in implementing change successfully.

Owolabi who has more than 20 years of experience in the information technology in telecommunications, healthcare, finance, retail and media industries is also a certified international ICT programme manager with experience in Enterprise solutions and infrastructure architecture management.

Oluwole has extensive experience in project justification, budgeting, and execution to reflect government policy, business objectives and goals.

He has excellent knowledge of change management in the public sector that involves complex and multi-disciplinary technical modeling and integration assignments. He has played leading roles in organisations that are a unique blend of content, media, data, integration, and technology.

With a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from University of Lagos, Nigeria, in 1988, and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Andrews University, Michigan, USA in 1994, he was at the University of Lagos elected member of the executives of the Students’ Union cabinet during 1983/84 academic sessions, and represented over 43,000 students’ interests with the university authority, and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

Oluwole started his career with the prestigious international research institute in Nigeria, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in 1988/89 during his NYSC national service. He has lived and worked in United States of America, United Kingdom and Nigeria.

Vastly travelled around the world Oluwole has had significant interactions with policy makers, national and regional ICT associations, senior business leaders, as well as civil society participants to create a platform that can showcase ICT’s power to enable, empower and enrich organizations.

He is a PRINCE2-certified technical solution architect with a very strong systems design, capacity planning, change management, quality review and support, budget management, staff management, procedural documentation, development, problem analysis and resolution, procurement, contractor-vendor relations and proposal review background, bringing industry credentials and strength in the areas of Project Management, conceptual to implementation.

Oluwole’s interests are chess, reading and strategic thinking. He is married with children.

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