Oyewole appointed Country CDO Ambassador for Nigeria
The founding members of the Country Chief Data Officer (CDO) Ambassador programme, the MITCDOIQ Symposium (www.MITCDOIQ.org), the International Society of Chief Data Officers (www.isCDO.org) and the CDO Magazine (www.cdomagazine.tech) have announced the appointment of Ambassador (Dr) Oyedokun Oyewole, Founder/President and Chairman, Governing Council of the Institute of Information Management (IIM), Africa as the Country Chief Data Officer Ambassador for Nigeria and the first-ever Country Chief Data Officer Ambassador in Africa.
Over the past few years, trends and events across the globe have increasingly come to recognise data as an asset that represents a highly strategic source of insights and leverage for a wide array of business functions, including risk-management, regulatory compliance, sales and marketing, product development and operational performance among others. However, to realise this embedded value, there is need to proactively and effectively manage data and information assets at the enterprise level. In response to these, the appointment of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) to provide required strategic guidance and execution support and also to assure access to the quality of critical data becomes imperative.
As the Country Chief Data Officer Ambassador for Nigeria, Oyewole n will facilitate bi-directional communication between the Country CDO Ambassadors and their community; assisting the data management community by providing a vehicle for education and mobilisation. Being the focal point for the Country, he will be providing support, assistance and guidance to the data management community.
Robert Lutton, the Vice President, Sandhill Consultants, welcomed Oyewole as he joined the growing data community.
“We have been on the lookout for just the right person who has connections and passion for the industry. As we look to grow Country CDO Ambassadors, we feel that Dr. Oyedokun clearly meets all of the acceptance criteria. Now, he will advocate for strengthening the data industry in Africa,” Lutton said.
Oyewole who is equally the Founder of the International University of Information Management (IUIM) Denver, Colorado, USA is responsible for the management of the Record and Information Management Awareness (RIMA) Foundation (Nigeria and South Africa), and Wolexdok Micro-processor Ltd.
In the late 1990s, Oyewole worked as the Head of the Computer Department with technical support functions at Swenig System Nigeria, a Swedish company with expertise in information security, sales and support of Dr. Solomon Anti-Virus Toolkit. Between 1998 and 2012, he worked for Chevron Nigeria Limited, a leading oil and gas company in Nigeria. Oyewole is also a member of the Network and System Professionals Association (NaSPA) USA, International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM).
He is a distinguished and respected international information management practitioner, founder of the Records and Information Management Awareness Foundation (RIMA Foundation), publisher of Information Management World Magazine (IM World Magazine), RIM Africa Journal, executive producer of Information Management World on Television (IM World TV) and a former columnist of Guardian Newspaper (Fridays) – Executive Brief Column (Infotech4dexecutives).
He has received numerous local and international awards, for his contributions to the development of the data and information management industry in Nigeria and Africa. A recipient of the “Great Minds of the 21st Century Award”, an award presented to him by the American Biographical Institute among others.
Oyewole was part of a thirteen-man committee inaugurated in March 2010 by the Lagos State Government for the formulation of Policy on Records and Archives Management in Lagos State.
In 2014, he was appointed as Ambassador for Peace by the Universal Peace Federation. In 2015, he became the first-ever African Fellow of the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) in the United Kingdom. His specialties include ECM, BPM, DM, EDMS implementation, training, and consultancy services.
In June 2021, he was elected to the Board, Friends of Research4Life; a global organisation that has worked to reduce the knowledge gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries by providing affordable access to high-quality scientific research.
With more than 100,000 peer-review journals, books and databases – as well as toolkits, e-learning platforms, free courses and resource centers – Research4Life supports efforts to improve teaching, research, practice and policy-making in health, agriculture, the environment and other life, physical and social sciences.
Oyewole was recently (July 2021) appointed as an Editorial Board Member of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) Magazine (www.cdomagazine.tech), USA.
