Coker, Rack Centre MD to Keynote BoICT Lecture 2016

Ayotunde Coker, managing director of Rack Centre, will deliver this this year’s Beacon of ICT (BoICT) Distinguished Lecture, the organisers said.

Coker who will speak on the theme ““Data Centre as Kiln of Industrialization and Transformation” at the event, widely regarded as the most prestigious annual event available in the ICT industry in Nigeria.

This year’s Beacon of ICT Distinguished Lecture/Awards Series is slated for Saturday, April 23, 2016, at the prestigious Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos.

According to Ken Nwogbo, CEO, Communication Week Media Ltd, organisers of the BoICT Distinguished Lecture/Awards Series, Coker will join the college of distinguished personalities who have delivered the keynote addresses at the event.

Some of the past distinguished lecturers are: Dr. Ernest Ndukwe is the father of modern telecommunications in Nigeria and former EVC, NCC; Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa, former Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC); Dr. Jean Luc Fort, CEO at OR System France; Professor Chris Nwagboso, Chairman, Knowledge Factory International, United Kingdom; Uche Orji, managing director/chief executive officer, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); and Biodun Omoniyi, Managing Director/CEO, VDT Communications.

Nwogbo said that the event will be chaired by Ndukwe, one of Nigeria’s finest brain and a globally sought after resource person.

“We are indeed very delighted to have Coker as the keynote speaker of this year’s event, he is a shining example of upwardly mobile young profession who has within a short time built a reputation for innovation and the democratisation of IT business in Nigeria” Nwogbo stated.

Coker, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Glamorgan University, Wales has worked with Ford of Europe; and Cap Gemini, a global top 5 business and technology consultancy.

During the 2000s, he held various roles; MD/CEO at an eMC Saatchi, an M&C Saatchi company, Global IT Applications Director at BP the oil major, and prior to coming to Nigeria in 2009, he was Chief Technology Officer for Criminal Justice in the UK and CIO for Ministry of Justice.

Access Bank brought Coker back to Nigeria as Group CIO in 2009; and he was engaged on the exciting journey to transform the bank to one of the leading banks it is today.

In 2013, he left to join Emerging Markets Payments as MD West Africa.

He is a post graduate alumnus of Cranfield Institute of Technology, Fellow of the British Computer Society, Fellow of the Nigerian Institute For Government Research Leadership Technology, Honorary Senior Member of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Credit Administration, and Member, UK Institute of Directors.

He believes that Nigeria will be an industrialised and transformed top 20 global economy and is very pleased Rack Centre is a key part of that journey.

Coker is expected to share his wealth of global experience sector with ICT industry.