Yemi Keri

yemi keri is one of nigeria’s foremost women in technology, with experience in both the public and private sectors. she is the chief executive officer of heckerbella limited, a technology business transformation company, and also a partner at holmen consulting, an information technology consulting firm; a chair, non-executive director and advisory board member of various organisations and an award-winning commercially minded technologist with 20 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries, operating at ceo and c-suite levels across the public and private sectors.

yemi is at the forefront of digital transformation to tackle business and social problems, recognised as one of nigeria’s foremost women in technology, with demonstrable evidence of delivering reliable business solutions through technology. she is responsible for the implementation of the biometric identification, time & attendance, and payroll automation system (bipatas) for over 80,000 delta state paid staff and pensioners, as well as the automation of the processes of ekiti state board of internal revenue’s property enumeration and land use charge project. she is managing the development of a subscription-based digital operations platform. this is the intellectual property of heckerbella and an indigenous solution.

she is also the co-founder of the iaspire data science fellowship program (an idaf.ng), training and preparing bright nigerian minds to use artificial intelligence and advanced machine and deep learning concepts to tackle business and social problems. before this, yemi was general manager for information technology and enterprise systems for natcom development and investment company limited. she was the pioneer managing director and chief executive officer of the edo state directorate of information communications & technology agency (icta).

she is a multidisciplinary graduate of accounting (university of maiduguri), and master’s in information technology & project management from the american intercontinental university, illinois, strategic decision making for management from the london school of economics and political science, and an alumnus of the lagos business school/iese business school, barcelona and china european international business school.

yemi is a board member of the first city monument bank ltd (fcmb), investment one financial services, the nigerian-german chamber of commerce, beyond credit limited and nigeria climate innovation centre. she is also a member of the technical committee of nassbar of the nigeria economic summit group, an external faculty member at the fintech institute and on the advisory board of ingressive llc, gaia women club, the assembly hub, sabihub and several other organisations.

yemi is an expert in residence (eir) at the enterprise development centre (edc) of the pan- atlantic university, lagos. she co-founded rising tide africa, a women’s movement initiated with a vision to increase women’s participation in angel investing as an asset class and promote education, cross-border investing and investor mentoring across africa. she is also a director of the lagos angel network and mentors various digitally and technology-enabled start-ups. she serves on the board of the africa business angel network (aban), is the champion for the aban climate smart agriculture angel network and the investment committee of acumen resilient agriculture fund (araf), managed by acumen capital partners. she is a mentor to various digital and technology-enabled start-ups.

yemi received the centenary award for the most outstanding public sector cio in nigeria in 2014.