Yemi Keri, Chief Executive Officer, Heckerbella
Yemi is one of the foremost Women in Technology in Nigeria with experience in both the Public and Private sectors. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Heckerbella Limited, a Technology Business Transformation company, and a Partner at Holmen Consulting, an Information Technology consulting firm.
She is currently 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. She is managing the development of an integrated subscription-based Biometric Identification, Payroll solution, Electronic Document Management and Time and Attendance System for large-scaled organisations. This is the intellectual property of Heckerbella and an indigenous application. She is co-founder of iAspire Data Science Fellowship Program an iDAF.ng flagship program that is training and preparing Nigerian bright minds to use Artificial Intelligence and advanced machine and deep learning concepts to tackle business and social problems. It is a two-year program that includes a six-month free comprehensive data science training, cloud certification in AWS, Azure or Google and 18 months of professional work as a data scientist.
Prior to this she was the General Manager for Information Technology and Enterprise Systems for ntel, NatCom Development and Investment Company Limited. Preceding this, she was the pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Edo State Directorate of Information Communications & Technology Agency (ICTA) and held the role of Regional Manager, West Africa for SAP Africa. Yemi has almost three decades of work experience, sixteen years of which has been in the Information Technology and Telecommunications industries; eleven at highest management levels.
A multidisciplinary graduate of Accounting (University of Maiduguri), and Masters 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, London and an alumni of the Lagos Business School/IESE Business School, Barcelona, and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).Yemi holds membership of several professional bodies including ICAN, CIBN, CITN and the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS). She also holds various certifications in Risk and Project management and received the Centenary award for the Most Outstanding Public-Sector CIO in Nigeria in 2014.
Yemi Keri is the co-founder of 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 serves as a mentor to various digitally and technology enabled start-ups. Yemi is an Expert in Residence (EIR) at the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan- Atlantic University, Lagos.
Yemi is a member of the Board of trustees for Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre, a member of the Technical Committee, NASSBAR of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Board Member of Nigerian-German Chamber of Commerce, Investment One Financial Services, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Beyond Credit Limited, Doctors on Call, External Faculty Member at the Fintech Institute and on the Advisory Board of Ingressive LLC, GAIA Women Club, The Assembly Hub, SabiHub and Majeure Chesterfield.