Nneka Abulokwe OBE was born to Joseph Ogwu Abulokwe from Ndoni in eastern Nigeria and Myrtle May Mcdonald from Jamaica. Both parents met when her father went to England in search of the “golden fleece” back in the fifties. When the Nigerian civil war broke out in 1967, Mrs Abulokwe had to leave her husband behind in Biafra and move back to England with her young family of five where she gave birth to Nneka. Her name which means “mother is supreme” is in honor and acknowledgment of her mother’s hard work to care for the family alone in England through the three years of the war.
Back in Nigeria after the end of the war, Nneka attended Port Harcourt Primary School and Federal Government Girls college Abuloma, Rivers State, Nigeria. She graduated from the University of Port Harcourt with a degree in History.
She returned to England for her Master’s degree from the University of London and a Doctorate degree in Business Administration from Cranfield University School of Management and found her calling in IT and Business.
She became an innovative technologist and digital governance entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience, with most of it on consulting and advising some of the largest multinational digital transformation organizations.
She sat on the board of Sopra Steria a €3.7bn digital transformation organization, as Executive Director Governance, Risk & Assurance UK & Asia. She is a Freeman of the Technologists Livery Company, WCIT; a Freeman of The City of London; a Fellow of both the Chartered IT Institute, the BCS, FBCS and the Chartered Institute for Project Management, FAPM.; Chair, Board Nominations Committee, ISACA London; Non-Executive Director, Audit & Risk Committee, University of Cambridge and Business Mentor, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
She is 4th on the list of Financial Times 100 Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) Technology leaders for 2018. Finalist for Governance professional of the year 2018 Award by Governance Institute, UK, Nneka is 9th in the Financial Times EMpower Ethnic Minority Executives and Role Models list.
She is on the list of 100 most influential persons of Afro/Caribbean origin in the United Kingdom and has been interviewed by Forbes Magazine on Boardroom matters.
To crown her achievements, she was honoured, in 2019, with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in recognition of her introduction of an innovative form of governance for the digital era.
Nneka Abolukwe has spoken at many conferences worldwide and continues to mentor and inspire many young people. She is well known and recognized in Technology and Governance and is the founder and current CEO of Micromax Consulting Company.
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