Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor’s post on her Twitter handle for May 7 is ‘A new week is another opportunity to take a step in the right direction towards your goals and aspirations’ for which she tagged #MondayMotivation.
It is evident that the head of Google in Nigeria takes this moving in the right direction mantra very seriously and hence treats every day like a Monday. It is little wonder that under her guidance, Google has made significant impact on local content development and digital capacity building in Nigeria. For instance, she explained in an interview she granted The Guardian that Google Nigeria has launched a series of innovative products and services aimed at building the online ecosystem in Nigeria through a three-pronged strategy that includes driving initiatives around Internet access to make the internet more available and affordable to the Nigerian user, facilitating local content development, and building capacity.
Under her watch Google Nigeria launched a nationwide programme called Get Nigerian Businesses Online providing free and easy tools that any business owner could use to create a website in a couple of hours, and also get listed on Google Maps. That has since evolved to the Digital Business Manager (DBM) programme, which leverages Google’s third-party model to grow the digital ecosystem by supporting businesses in their online journey. This is just one of many innovations that have involved students, entertainers and people from all walks of life in the country.
Ehimuan-Chiazor, who has over 20 years’ experience in new media enterprise, technology as well as oil and gas across Europe, Middle East and Africa, was named by Forbes as one of the top 20 youngest power women in Africa.
She holds an Executive MBA from the London Business School, a Post Graduate degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge, UK; and obtained a Bachelor’s degree with 1st class honours in computer engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. She is a recipient of the London Business School Global Women’s Scholarship, and at Cambridge University she received two scholarly awards – Selwyn College Scholar and Malaysian Commonwealth Scholar.
Before Google she had been at Chams Plc in Lagos, Microsoft UK, where she received the Microsoft “Ship-IT” award for successfully launching the new MSN online subscription business in the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany, and at the Shell Petroleum Development Company. She calls Lagos home. She is a Lagos Big Girl.
Bet you didn’t know that she is a super woman of sorts as she has been able to do these exploits and more in spite of having and taking care of her family.