Adeola (Addy) Olubamiji (PhD) is an industry-4.0-expert and she is one of the few who have indeed used the power of technology (specifically 3D-printing) to navigate and thrive in the North American job market.
She is currently the Director of Additive Manufacturing Solutions at Desktop Metal, Massachusetts, USA. Prior to this, she co-led a multi-million-dollar new business 3D-printing start up for Cummins Inc. USA. She is the chief consultant at Tech Centrix Ltd. (Canada & USA), the founder of STEMHub Foundation Canada and she sits on the board of several organisations such as Health & Science Innovations, Indiana, USA and AfricaHacks, USA.
In June 2017, Adeola received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the 113-year-old University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and made history as the first black person to have received this PhD from the university. Her academic contributions have yielded several scholarly scientific publications, scientific conference presentations, and a TEDx talk.
Some of the awards she has won include 2020 Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, 2020 STEP (Science technology Engineering and Production) Award by the American Manufacturing Institute, RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant 2020, 2019 Influential Women in Manufacturing Award by Putman Media, 2019 L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth Canada Honoree, and so on.
Growing up
I grew up in Mokola Ibadan, Nigeria. My parents did not have education so we were relatively poor. My mum is hard working; I saw her waking every morning at 3:00 a.m, to go to Shasha market to buy what she sells. My mum sold pepper and dry grocery. She went from Shasha market to Bodija market twice a week. I call her the lioness. She just believes in working hard and not asking anybody for money. How my father supported her was very encouraging. I grew up in a home where, doing the house chores, taking care of the kids was something my father was open to doing.
On the wall of our living room, I saw the pictures of two of my uncles; one of them is a professor of nuclear physics, and the other one was one of the pioneers of atomic bombs. They were living in the US. Every time I talked about my passion for education, my dad would encourage me and say “Hey, look at your uncles, we grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Ondo state together. Their parents didn’t go to school as well, but they fought for education and in the end, they were able to move to the US and are doing great stuff.”
At a very early age, I knew that I could use education as my compass to navigate wealth. That it didn’t really matter that we didn’t have money, that if my uncles could do it, I will do it. I knew that education would be my only way of escape of not replicating poverty, and I didn’t want to be like my parents. I hawked pepper and I didn’t want my children to go through that. I knew that I needed to focus on something that would get me out of poverty and for me, it was education. So, education was a do or die affair. I kept going, and I started seeing results.
I told my dad that I was going to get a PhD in physics just like my uncle. I did get a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics but I didn’t want to make bombs. I sought to know if there was anything new and that is how I came across biomedical engineering and that time, Nigerian universities hadn’t started that. I had to leave Nigeria.
Some of the things my upbringing did for me was helping me understand that, if I can’t go to school, I’m just going to end up like my parents. So, I needed to fight for it. At a young age, I knew how to make money, keep my own money and how to take care of myself.
I remember when I first saw my period, my dad and I managed my period for six months before we told my mum. I used ‘ankara’ fabric as sanitary towel from when I was 12 years old to year three in the university. I couldn’t afford anything. I would wash it and still pad up with it.
I thank God for my influences growing up, my career path was influenced by my uncles (Especially the one who read Physics) who were highly ranked in my neighbourhood because no one did what they did. So, the picture was good enough. I was able to follow through just like my uncle. I just wanted to be like him.
Growing in my home made me understand money, discipline, and that being part of a family doesn’t make everything fall on my laps. You have to play your part.
Studying Physics
Growing in Nigeria, people believed that if you end up in the roles of basic science like physics, biology, chemistry, you would end up becoming not successful and not the cool kid. So, people really respected those studying engineering and computer science. But when you’re in basic science, they think that you’d probably be poor. What they didn’t know is that, basic science gives you the qualification to be anything. So, I could do multiple things, but back home, you would be a teacher and you would be poor. Everybody carried that with them and when they look at you, they are wondering what you are going to become. What they don’t realise is that, it opens the door for multiple opportunities around the world and I’m happy I made that decision.
In the beginning, if I didn’t have a role model, I could have been demoralised, and this can cause you to have low self-esteem, make you feel like you shouldn’t talk where others are. Physics was so tough, it wasn’t an easy subject to take on, but I knew where I was going. Whatever anybody was saying didn’t really affect me. I just look at them and how they don’t really get it. It was okay. I’m happy I took that path because with physics, multiple doors opened.
Farming and frying garri to pay for my school fees in Nigeria
I didn’t let any of my friends in school know I was frying garri (granulated processed cassava). I would just say “I’m going home”. That meant I was going to Ibadan, to Olosun and I would stay there a week to fry my garri. I had some marks on my thumb and those marks were there for years and every time I saw those marks, I remembered how I paid my tuition and that was the biggest motivation I needed. It fuelled my passion and fight for quality education, my fight for being the best at anything. I went back to school like it’s a war zone, like I had to ‘fight’ to scale through in life.
During that time in school, what went through my mind sometimes was fulfillment in the sense that, nobody gave me money; I made it myself even though my mum gave me the land. I felt it was a training on how to be independent, make your own money, manage your life yourself. At a young age, I became independent and I was proud of myself when I made money from it.
Every time I went back to school, I remembered the daughter of who I am, a lioness, a fighter, a woman who can’t be put in a corner. Frying garri fuelled me. Every day of my life, I knew that I couldn’t disappoint them. I was doing it for me, my future was at stake.
Being a sales girl and cleaner in Finland
I went to Finland to study Information Technology because I thought my university degree from Nigeria was useless. On getting there, I realised that it was worth a lot, so I crossed to do my Masters. I was going to this country and I didn’t have a scholarship and, on their website, they said you survive on 500 euros a month, and I only had 700 euros in all with me. I didn’t have accommodation, but at the train station where I was going to check the train to the city my school was located, I found two Nigerians, when I moved closer, they were speaking Yoruba, I just immediately went on my knees and asked for help. Luckily, one of them had connections in that area. From not knowing somebody, I got to that city and somebody was waiting for me. They gave me food and helped me get a cleaning job. That cleaning job was my saving grace because without that cleaning job, what I had would not sustain me. Getting a cleaning job at a point in Finland was like hitting a jackpot because I needed to survive.
I went from that to another school and continued my cleaning job. My job schedule was from 5:00 a.m till 7:30 a.m. From there, I’d quickly wear my clothes to class which starts by 8:00 a.m to 4:30 every day. After that, I’ll take my bath. That was the routine every day. I think the suffering brought out the zeal to ‘fight’ to excel.
In my class, I was the first to graduate. I went to language school in Finland hoping that could help me get a professional job because I did that very well. I stayed for a year but I didn’t get a job, so, I felt it was time to leave to another. I started applying. I did over a hundred applications before finally getting into a university where I was given scholarship.
Then, I moved to Canada and it was like ‘finally God has done it’. I was so excited and I felt that my hard work is going to pay off. Yes, the scholarship covered my tuition and paid my rent, but I asked myself, “Am I not going to eat?” So, the hustle continued and getting a job as a sales girl was not a big deal and was not new to me. The rest they say is history.
The upgrade
I knew industry 4.0 was the future of work. In 2011, they announced industry 4.0 and talked about different technologies, block chain, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and I knew that I had to plant myself in one of these technologies. So, I decided to reroute my PhD in 3D printing because it was just getting started.
To students, you may be going through a tough season now; you can’t lose yourself right now. You have to find your way out. For me, it was 3D printing. I knew 3D printing was the future. I crossed without funding but three months later, I had funding. The new funding was not as good as the old funding. I knew if I endured that, I was going to soar, and at the end, before I graduated, a job was waiting for me. Sometimes, you need to make that call. In the beginning, it may not be good enough but with perseverance, you will come through.
When I look at how much I make now, all I have accrued, it was because I studied 3d printing. It was well worth it, best decision of my career. Comfort zone is your enemy. Easy is your enemy. What you believe in, if well calculated, do it and the results will follow.
Being the first black woman to obtain a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the 113-year-old University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
It was a full-circle moment for me because I came out walking on that stage and remembering the promise I made to my father that I wanted to get a PhD. My father comes from a family of educators, so when I got my PhD, I called my father and told him, “From today, let nobody disrespect you or look down on you. From today, you have a seat at the table in your family, I give you that permission” because it meant so much to me that nobody really recognised my father in my family because he was not well-to-do and did not have the kind of degrees they had.
I actually didn’t know that I was the first; I just knew that nobody looked like me. When it happened, I was like, ‘We’ve raised that ceiling’. Biomedical was so new that people wanted me to cross over to mechanical, but I told them biomedical was for those who could see the future. Did I get discouraged by Africans? Absolutely, because we’re always playing safe. Africans do traditional stuff to know how it’s going to end, if so, nobody wants to go in that path. Where the world is going today, you cannot play safe.
The technologies that will drive 30 years from now have not been created, so you cannot play safe. When I did that, I needed to encourage black people to understand that the future of work is going to have new innovative technologies. Being the first black was a big deal to me than being able to fulfill my promise to myself of getting a PhD when I was a child. It was important to me that being able to show my father that somebody could carry his name in publications was feasible, that his name would be on the map. That to me was more important.
In 2017, I made a five-year career roadmap that I wanted to be a director in one of the most innovative companies in the world, and have my own consulting company. I became a director in three years. My uncle did all of the good stuff in the US. Why is that important? You cannot leave your career and say that fate or God will determine it. God cannot determine if you don’t determine it yourself. You need to sit down and put together your career plan and work to fulfill it. If you leave it to one manager or company, you’re going nowhere.
I think I’ve done a lot of firsts after that. I was the one who trailblazed 3D printing for Additive Manufacturing Solutions at Desktop Metal, Massachusetts, USA.
Joining Additive Manufacturing Solutions at Desktop Metal, Massachusetts, USA
I am a person who believes that in our career, there is a point for skill acquisition, there is a point for influence acquisition. Two and half years ago, I transitioned from collecting skills to collecting influence. Skills will take you far, influence will take you further, because somebody must be sitting at the right place and put your name there as the person with the most skills who can do the job.
When I relocated to the US finally, I told myself, I don’t have Harvard degree, I need a bag of influence because I’m not ready to go back to any school. I now did a roadmap for influence and I started attending conferences so people will know me as a 3D printing subject matter expert beyond the company I work for.
So, I started going for conferences that focused on 3D printing. I know my stuff, I needed a platform. There was a conference I went for, the company was doing a conference on 3D printing and a new technology that has been developed, I raised my hand and asked a very hard question. The company didn’t have an answer. People were like, ‘who is this’? Before the end of the session, I asked another question but they didn’t have an answer. That was the beginning of my superstardom.
Immediately, everybody wanted my business card, they wanted to know who this girl is and as such, it increased my followership on social media. First of all, when you go to conferences, you need to understand who you want to put in your influence bag and who you are targeting to meet. For me, they were 3D printing experts like myself. That was my beginning because from there, people would invite me to come and sit on panels and I was internally winning in my company too because I was trailblazing the technology as well.
In that conference where I asked this question, people from the company I work with today were there. The CEO of my current company was there. After the whole stuff, nobody contacted me, but because the influence kept growing, people followed me on LinkedIn and saw what I was doing, my awards and what my company was also saying about me. Then somebody came and said ‘we have this position, are you interested?’ It happened that what they had was amazing, so I thought, ‘let’s go.’
I’ve built my influence portfolio, and I say to people, sometimes, what you need is not the next certification, sometimes, what you need is a bag of influence, if you get that PhD, they still would not promote you if nobody knows you, if nobody stands behind your certificate, it’s meaningless. Build your influence portfolio. I knew what I needed.
What do you need? You have to ask yourself because we are in the hood this year. What can you add this year? If you need skills, go get it. But if you evaluate and your skill is enough, maybe you need to switch strategies and begin to collect influence. That’s how I got the job. I was headhunted.
Being the founder of STEMHub Foundation Canada
When I graduated, I had parents coming to me and saying, “We need more people like you”. Parents were coming and saying “I need you to talk to my son, my daughter”. I often told them, “I can’t do it alone”. I decided I was going to just register a not-for-profit organisation, get like-minded Nigerians together and we would regularly go to communities and help youths, professionals who need help and just give back to our community. So, it’s a hub of like-minded people like me who came together and said we want to give back, and raise giants who are going to be stronger than us, more powerful than us, who look like us. Because people cannot be what they cannot see, we want young people to see us so that they will know that basket ballers, musicians and so on are not the only inspirational people out there, and that was how we got them started.
Also, because I’m Nigerian, we also had to look back and give to Nigeria as well. We went from having a mentorship programme where we help college students understand how to transition into the labour market and get the right job that is competitive, to where we are today. We’ve done it for three and a half years, STEM UP is now a charity and we’ve impacted over 20,000 people. We felt like we needed to take responsibility for our community. We don’t need to wait for White people to save us. We need to take responsibility, we need to help our people and we can be the ones supporting people that look like us if we really want them to be like us.
If you’re a leader, the community needs you beyond what you do. You’re not created to warm the bench, come, eat and close your door and say it’s you and your children. People can use your support, your skills and motivation. Do more in 2021.
Being chief consultant at Tech Centrix Ltd
I always loved education consulting and career coaching and I did my career coaching for free for a while and it was helping people. One day, I just said I was going to register this as a company, make a business out of it, so that I could touch more lives and help me scale up.
So, I founded the company in Nigeria when I was there, helping people, getting things up to speed and making sure that we’re able to get people from school to help them understand the market so they can get it and get the jobs.
They know how to compete; they know how much they should be paid. That is how Tech Centrix started. I founded the company because my passion is to get more black people into successful areas because it is possible. This is the life I want to live, one that is not selfish, the life that makes it possible for others. I’m thankful to God for it. That’s what the company does.
You’re thinking, “My career needs a shift, I want to do better”, come talk to me, let’s figure it out. I want to move abroad, come talk to me let’s figure it out. I know I have good grades I want a scholarship, there is nothing you cannot monetise. There’s value in what you’re doing waiting to be unlocked. Don’t let anybody shame you. It’s okay if you don’t look like them, it’s okay if you’re weird. Today, I am the pride of my parents, the child that they didn’t want, that they felt they’ve had four. The corner stone has become the pillar stone.
Admonition on loving and being loved
What I want to say to anybody going through stuff is that your time is coming, wait for it. The right person will love you the way you are, how weird you are, honour you, understand you and will not leave you. It will take a while, but the person will come.
