Julius Akinyemi is the initiator of Unleashing the Wealth of Nations project and the Resident Entrepreneur at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Akinyemi, a native of Nigeria, is exploring the commercialization of technology innovation to empower people in developing nations, so that they may invent new opportunities for themselves and their societies in a networked “always-on/always connected” information economy, with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Prior to his residency at the MIT Media Lab, Akinyemi was Global Director of Emerging Technologies for PepsiCo, Inc.; Senior Vice President for Emerging Technologies and Wireless Business Technology for Wells Fargo Bank, where he also served in various areas of the bank including finance, systems, retail and commercial banking. Julius has been involved in various industry groups including membership in the Mobile Finance Steering Committee of the Financial Services Technology Consortium and Bank Information Services (BITS) Financial Services Round-table. He was also involved in the Consumer product Group’s RFID technology item tags project. Julius was an Executive Advisory Board member of Cingular/AT&T Wireless as well as Verizon Wireless companies. Previously he was Director of Finance and MIS for Pan American World Airways (Western Europe Region) based in Paris, France.
Akinyemi is the founder of Applied Technology Solutions, which provides low-cost Internet access in developing countries, and co-founder of Sweden-based ICT4Africa. He was a member of the working team for ICT to eliminate poverty at the UN. He has an MBA from Ohio University.
