By Chidinma Victoria Nnaji
This year, we are celebrating and spotlighting extraordinary Nigerian women in technology, women who have actively taken action to shape their careers and thrive in the industry.
Meet Yemi Keri, the CEO of Heckerbella Limited, a digital transformation company. With over 17 years of experience in the technology industry, Yemi has held top management positions, including co-founder of the iAspire Data Science Fellowship Program Nigeria, board member at FCMB, and former Director and Regional Manager for SAP Africa, West Africa.
An extraordinary woman in every sense, Yemi shares her journey with us, offering valuable lessons that every woman can use as a stepping stone to take action and accelerate their path to success.
Name and how you started your journey in Technology?
My name is Yemi Keri, and I run a digital transformation company called Heckerbella. My journey in technology was happenstance, really, because I took a personal decision that I needed to start a family, and I had to slow down on my career trajectory that did not allow for me to nurture relationships. And so I got a role, the liaison at SAP in Nigeria at the time, which transcended into me over the years becoming the regional manager for SAP in Africa. But to attain this, I had to learn and relearn. In the technology space, applications, solution architecture space, for me to be able to excel.
As a woman in this field, what challenges have you faced, and how have you successfully overcome them to accelerate your growth?
For the woman in the technology space, and based on the time in which I started my journey, I had to do a lot of learning and self-development. I had to build confidence in the roles that I had attained. I had to leverage my network. It's very important to build your network, to be able to tap on peer knowledge. I've had to do a lot in terms of reaching out to mentors and having mentors for different things in my life journey, my technology. So I reach out to them and leverage on that.
I have also had to do a lot of leadership skill development as I grew in the ranks. More importantly, in some roles in technology, I've had to address issues of biases, whether unconscious or deliberate biases. And that has been termed at various times within my journey. But importantly, it's to stay focused. I try to keep out all the noise. I try to stay focused on where my goals are at, and I also try my best to remain resilient in what I do.
In a typical male-dominated industry, what do you think organizations can do to support the inclusion of women currently in tech and those considering a career in it?
One of my major beliefs is in meritocracy, whether you're a man or a woman. I also believe that when a woman has an opportunity, she should make the best out of it. Best out of it, being that if you have to double your efforts, double your efforts to be at par. I don't think that women need to be given or seen as the lesser gender and to be given opportunity just because the company or the organization wants to have a gender balance. I think that the onus is on the women, just as it's on the organization.
When you have a woman in tech in your organization, treat her equally as the others and if she has to step up, just like the others, give them the opportunity. I believe there are a lot of women in tech organizations today, basically because there's no industry that does not run technology. I also believe that a lot of women in technology in these organizations are sticking out as a sore thumb because they're doing phenomenally well. We don't really hear about them, and that is supposed to be the responsibility of a lot of us that are sponsors or mentors to be able to, welcome them in the fold and show them the trajectory of how we have been able to meander our career path.
So really, for me, when you find yourself in a position as a woman in any organization and in technology, at the back of your mind, you need to always know that there are those that are coming behind you that would need for you to behave well, for you to actually perform so that they can have the opportunity of meeting their own goals as well.
Yemi Keri
What emerging tech trend do you see as critical to shaping the future of women in tech and how can they get involved in it?
I mean, we all know the emerging trends, the loudest of which is artificial intelligence at this point in time. However, there are others, the blockchain and the cryptos and quantum computing, but that which is affecting all and sundry, whether in private or in your private lives or in your official life, it's artificial intelligence at this point in time.
How do we encourage women to get into this? We are getting to the point where we are on the level playing ground and everything stems from technology. So technology is not only about hard core software development, or when you're speaking about coding, as they like to call it. It's across the value chain. You must try and understand how you can bring value to the organization in which you work, or value to even yourself in terms of development. You must understand how you can leverage these emerging technologies, and by doing so, you must at least understand the technology if you are going into that space.
Even though I'm in technology, I've had to take a lot of courses when it comes to artificial intelligence, so that when my team is talking to me, I understand where they're going and understand what they're saying so that they're not shooting above my head.
So for women to be able to come in and leverage on emerging technologies, you need to understand it, develop your knowledge in it, play with it, work with it. It's at the tip of your fingers! Even if they're talking about only Gen AI, if you're using your ChatGPT or your copilot or whatever, try and understand how to use it better for your work. Those are the types of things that you need to be able to be in this game of emerging technology.
What's one book/podcast that you really love and has contributed to shaping your personal or professional growth, especially as a woman in tech?
One of the books that I most recently read, which has made me start to listen to podcasts of CEOs, is 'Deep Purpose' by Ranjay Gulati and that has really made me start to think as a leader that there are others that are doing phenomenal things. It's also good to see each of those CEOs or leaders tell their stories and how they're able to use courage and commitment to be able to surpass any challenges or to make decisions for the benefit of their businesses and how it has helped them to grow. So that is one of the recent books that is influencing my thinking.
Yemi Keri
With your impressive career achievements so far, do you still have a role model who inspires you? If so, who and why?
In my earlier days, when I was building my career, one of my role models was Condoleezza Rice, the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States George Bush (Jan 26, 2005 - Jan 20, 2009), and what endeared me to her was really how a woman could so powerfully hold her own amongst men and how she was able to navigate the affairs of the United States. But I do have other role models in different things, I look at people and how they've achieved.
Role models for tenacity, I can name about three of them - Kola Aina, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, and Tokunboh Ishmael.
Role model for advancing women's efforts In Nigeria, I would name - Bola Adesola and Olatowun Candide- Johnson.
So I have role models for different things. I try and look at the trajectory that all of these people are taking, and I do speak to them to see how their mind is working for me to be able to tease out certain things. So I have multiple role models.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to women who are looking to launch or scale their careers in tech.
For women to be able to sustain their career as it's going now, and with the evolution of technology, you have to really ensure that you are, if not at par, ahead of the curve. And so to do this, you must continuously learn and develop yourself. Knowledge is power. So on a continuous, you need time for yourself. There's a lot of information out there, read , attend classes , take certifications . Let your mind be as curious as possible.
The second thing I would like to say is that your network is very important. You would find that you would need them along the way, whether it's your colleagues, the colleagues from secondary school or in all the multiple places you've worked in, or even your support system in the house, you would meet them along the way, and so continue to maintain and build your relationship in terms of your network.
The third thing I would like to say is you have to be bold and take risks. If you're talking about innovation and disruption, if you're talking about doing certain types of things in the technology space, you can't be shy about it. You have to take those risks. I often tell people, it's either you sink or swim .
If you sink, you take lessons learned, and you raise yourself and sometimes go at it again, or use the lessons learned for other things. And if you swim, the sky's the limit. And so it's important for you to always take risks, go out of your comfort zone, and see what you can do with yourself.
The fourth thing I would say is that it is important to mentor and be mentored along your journey as a woman in technology. Mentor others that are coming behind you, and seek mentoring for different things. It's very important so that you can succeed in your journey.
Watch the Interview : Yemi's Journey & Insights
Happy International Women's Day 💪
