Adebola Ayoola Ibiyode, Group Head Of Engineering, SCB Group

Adebola Ibiyode is a seasoned solutions architect, software engineer and artificial intelligence expert leading cross-functional teams across multiple continents. Debola is not just a tech genius, she’s an entrepreneur, academic, educator, mentor and advocate for women and children.

She serves as the Head of Engineering at SCB Group, a leading firm in the low carbon market in the UK and has advisory roles at other organisations including Optisource Technology, as a director.

At SCB Group, leadership is a commitment to innovation and sustainability, and with over three years of experience at the helm of engineering, Adebola’s role involves driving the enterprise architecture and operationalising large language models to support their mission of a low carbon future. According to Adebola, these efforts are not just about technology, but about shaping a better world through responsible engineering practices.

Her tenure at Liquid Accounts prior to joining SCB Group honed her ability to navigate post-acquisition transitions and fostered a strategic mindset for technology deployment. As director and CTO at Liquid Accounts, she remained responsible for the ongoing success of the software, ensuring its smooth integration and continued development within the new organisational framework. In this capacity, she led the collaboration with HMRC on testing and implementing Making Tax Digital (MTD). This involved attending developer sessions with the HMRC team, coordinating meetings to demo the implementation, and securing approval for Liquid Accounts to be listed on the MTD platform as one of the approved service providers.

Their success with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital initiative exemplifies Adebola’s team’s capacity to deliver compliant and forward-thinking solutions. For her, these experiences underpin her ongoing mission at SCB Group: to empower her team with transformative tech solutions that lead the way in sustainability and innovation.

Over 20 years ago, Debola was a pivotal member of the team that created Nigeria’s first groundbreaking JAMB and WAEC result checker. This innovation revolutionised the Nigerian education sector, enabling students across the country to access their exam results online via a scratch card.

She holds a master’s degree in computer engineering from the prestigious Syracruse University and has earned certifications in artificial intelligence from both Oxford University and Harvard University. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Ladoke Akintola University, is Prince2 Certified, and a Microsoft certified solution developer.

When she’s not leading technical teams, developing AI and software products and providing great solutions in innovation to startups and organisations, she’s building the young minds of children in STEM and coding or encouraging women to grow their careers in the tech industry.