re:publica 2014

Biography

The doctor turned enterprise developer admits that the connection between the fields of Medicine and Business Development is “Systematic Review”. Recently appointed as the Operations Manager for Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA Nigeria), a government facilitated and Accenture (Nigeria) supported incubator/ accelerator, Wole Odetayo has been helping entrepreneurs of different caliber develop their ideas into sustainable innovative bankable businesses for almost a decade. Having failed himself at 2 different businesses, his love for business development dates back to his school days as a successful student entrepreneur where he started and successfully exited a telecommunication services company. He eagerly shares lessons learnt form past failures and victories won with aspiring entrepreneurs especially at various tech accelerators and incubators.

Wole believes that his training as a medical doctor is the cradle of his mental strength for business strategy especially his skills in Go-To-Market Strategy, Project Management and Corporate Strategy. Aside co-founding Nigeria’s foremost venture accelerator, Wennovation Hub, he also oversees a couple of sustainable enterprises including an Oil & Gas consulting firm and sits on the board of about half a dozen companies including one of Nigeria’s fastest growing business consulting firm, LoftyInc Allied Partners Ltd. He has won a handful of awards both in sports and business and has been invited to speak at different leading business development oriented gatherings like the 2013 edition of the USAID Sponsored Annual Bank of Industry (BOI) Live Bank Panel Forum and the 2013 edition of the British Council sponsored Creative Industries Expo among others.

Wole is passionate about developing the budding innovation ecosystem in Nigeria and loves spending time mentoring young and promising startup entrepreneurs. Presently, he is the Programmes Director of the Youth Group of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos Province 42, which has over 2000 youths as members. He is currently pursuing another degree from the London School of Economics in Economics & Management.