Tolu Adelowo

Tolu Adelowo (M.Eng Computing 2005) is the Chief Executive Officer of a technology recruitment and outsourcing company based in Nigeria. He explains how studing at Imperial and making friendships along the way were fundamental in getting him where he is today.

Tell us about your time at Imperial

"I certainly remember Imperial College being a lot of work. Everyone was extremely smart at Imperial and this meant I really had to put in lots of work to get good grades. I really also enjoyed the course content. The professors and course facilitators were some of the best in their fields and they certainly made the subject content really interesting. Finally I remember living in London meant I had a lot of fun. Being in London meant I really could choose my scene depending on my mood. Sometimes we hung out in the student scene and sometimes, we hung out in the working professionals scene. And whenever I missed home cooked meals, I could always find a good Nigerian restaurant to go to. London was eclectic like that."

Why did you choose to study at Imperial?

"I chose to study at Imperial College because it was and still is a world class university for anyone choosing to study an engineering or technology related degree. At the time of my application, Imperial College consistently came out top in every league table and was particularly rated highly for computing degrees.

Furthermore, Imperial College's location in London was great for finding jobs. Many of the bluechip companies have their headquarters in London which meant we had easy access to some of the top employers."

Can you tell us what you’ve done since Graduation?

"I joined Accenture as a business consultant after graduating from imperial College. I spent a couple of years working on different transformation projects. I really enjoyed Accenture primarily because it was project based which meant you got to travel a lot and do a lot of different things.

After Accenture I worked with a couple of smaller consulting companies before joining a large hedge fund as a Senior Software Engineer.  Working at a hedge fund was great as I got to learn a lot about the financial sector.

After leaving Lansdowne Partners, I moved to Nigeria and founded a technology company.  Currently I am the Chief Executive Officer of a technology recruitment and outsourcing company based in Nigeria."

How has what you learnt at Imperial helped you in your career so far?

"Although it may sound cliched, but Imperial College really helped me become a good problem solver. The course assignments and projects we did at Imperial College were always based around solving problems and you get to develop an aptitude for solving problems. This has been useful throughout my career especially in Nigeria where there are a lot non market factors I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Beyond that, my degree at Imperial College gave me a good foundation for building a career in technology. Most of my career has been spent in the technology domain and this would not have been possible without my degree at Imperial College."

Do you have any advice for current Imperial students?

"My main advice to current students is to dedicate some time to building solid friendships with colleagues and the academic staff. The relationships you build now will certainly come in useful in the future. Since leaving Imperial College, there have been a few instances where I have had to leverage on my Imperial College network to achieve certain objectives. For example, my company sponsored an MSc project at the department of Computer Science to develop certain applications that could be used in developing countries. This would not have been possible without maintaining good relationships with the alumni network and the department."