Olawoye advocating for diversity in technology
December 8, 2019
After speaking about diversity in technology at a Linkedln event in the summer of 2017, a few Black techies approached Lekan Olawoye seeking advice about how they could advance in their organizations.
That struck a chord with the then Lead Executive for Talent Development at MaRS Discovery District who went back to the business and employment-oriented service provider five months later with a request to host an event for Black technologists.
Linkedln agreed and almost 150 professionals showed up at the January 2018 conference.
“These folks had incredible experience ranging from five to 30 years,” said Olawoye. “It was an incredible day and the one thing everyone kept saying was, ‘I always feel alone and isolated and I never knew there was so much of us’.”
Besides his full-time job leading a team focused on increasing the pipeline of top talent in the tech ecosystem, Olawoye was in the middle of campaigning to represent York South-Weston at city hall.
“I was super busy, but the overwhelming response at that conference had me thinking that there was a need in the industry and I should do something for my community to address it,” he said.
Three conferences last year focused on skill building, networking and peer matching that attracted approximately 300 participants each time combined with e-mails from Blacks outside the Greater Toronto Area who wanted to be part of the movement prompted Olawoye to reach out to a few corporate entities, including Linkedln, Shopify and Sunlife who consented to support the birth of the Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) that organized the largest gathering of Black professionals in Canada on October 25.
Held in Toronto considered Canada’s tech hub, the summit brought together industry leaders and was a significant platform for networking and dialogue.
“The goal of BPTN is simple,” Olawoye noted. “We want to ensure you have peer networks because in technology, you get paid to bring a friend to work with a company. There is a bonus. We also need to be at the cutting edge of skill building because technology is changing where you work, live and think. If you are going to work in technology, you must be at the forefront. As well, we want executives to know about other Black executives. That’s on the talent side. On the company side, the business case is very simple. We can help companies ensure they are spending less time in hiring by providing them with people they haven’t been good at engaging and retaining. We can offer that human resource need for your business to save you money and increase your production.”
To better serve Canada’s tech community, MaRS Talent Development transitioned last May into Talent X which is a stand-alone unit focussing on training, research and connecting talent into the ecosystem.
Olawoye is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the company that shares a leased co-working tech space at 215 Spadina Ave.
“We want to ensure that Black professionals see each other, know each other and learn something new,” he said. “We want to make sure that those looking for work and those that are interested in progressing in their organizations get those opportunities. We are encouraging any company that partners with us to consider hiring those people that are qualified for positions.”
Before becoming a senior leader with cross-sector experience in growth strategy, talent development, policy and government relations, Olawoye was immersed in social work and community upliftment.
After graduating from Ryerson University in 2007, he was a consultant responsible for Youth Economic Opportunities with Toronto Community Housing, a Tropicana Community Services Youth Engagement Co-ordinator, Chair of the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities and For Youth Initiative in Toronto Executive Director.
“My background is in social work, I moved up into leadership and within that I started to see what is sustainable and what’s not,” said the former Ward 12 Community Alliance Co-chair.
The seven years at FYI allowed Olawoye to cut his teeth in leadership.
In addition to leading the development and overseeing the implementation of FYI’s three-year strategic vision, he developed new corporate and donor relationships and helped the organization’s budget increase by over 400 per cent and the facility space from 1,200 to 9,000 square feet with a new program location.
“I grew up in that organization literally,” Olawoye pointed out. “I got married, became a father and was part of teams that built major policy that is still around. I learnt a lot of difficult leadership lessons about how to not get down when things don’t go well. FYI was a really good incubator to help grow my leadership skills.”
Based on his active community involvement, capability for collaboration and professional experience, he was chosen to be a 2011 DiverseCity Fellow.
One of North America’s top programs for emerging leaders interested in urban issues and effecting change exposes participants to important regional issues, provides opportunities for personal leadership development and helps them develop a strong network of civic-minded peers across sectors. It also provides access to the region’s top influencers and is a unique platform for community-focused action.
It was during his time with the first ever Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities created by the Ontario government that MaRS recruited him.
MaRS supports Canada’s most promising startups, helping them grow, create jobs and solve society’s greatest challenges.
“While there, I got into the tech centre and learnt about tri-sector leadership which is knowing how government, businesses and non-profits work,” said Olawoye who has a Master’s In Social Work and is a Telus Community Board member. “I have been lucky in that I have been able to do that. Because of that interesting world view, I can now run a company that’s actually profitable.”
Olawoye has also been fortunate to have some trusted people in his corner.
He singled out community worker Donavan Samuels who was the best man at his wedding eight years ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers Managing Partner Raj Kothari, TD Vice-President Colleen Ward and Sun Life Financial Chief Executive Officer Dean O’Connor
“Danavan has had an incredible influence on my life, Raj is an amazing human being, Colleen has been very supportive and Dean was the first person that called me after I lost the last municipal election,” said Olawoye.
Leaving Nigeria at age eight, he spent 12 years in Rexdale which is one of Toronto’s designated priority neighbourhoods.
“That community opened my eyes to a different world where there is so much love for each other and innovation by necessity,” added Olawoye. “You have to hustle to survive and that hustle mentality has always stuck with me. I can never rest on my laurels and say I have made it because I am young, Black and male.”
