Juliet Ehimuan the Tech Amazon Leading the Path of Excellence

Sometimes back, I wouldn’t have believed, if told that Nigerians and tech are like babies and math. However, even in such world, Google has become one of the easiest and most common go-to for tech content for the common man.

It is refreshing and inspiring to not only have this knowledge of access but also to have a woman championing it.

Juliet Ehimuan is a Nigerian technology expert and entrepreneur who currently serve as Google’s Country Manager in Nigeria. In August 2011, she was listed in Forbes “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa”.

Born in Nigeria, Ehimuan completed her B.Eng. degree in Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, with a first-class honour. She proceeded to obtain a postgraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom before she went on to complete her MBA programme from London Business School.

Prior to her appointment at Google, Juliet was the General Manager, Strategic Business Units of Chams Plc where she was responsible for leading and formulating strategies for Chams Strategic Business units. She also worked with Microsoft UK for 6 years, initially as a Program Manager managing Strategic Projects for MSN Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and then Business Process Manager for MSN International covering 11 subsidiaries worldwide.  She received the Microsoft “Ship-IT” award for successfully launching the new MSN online subscription business in the UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany.

Her early career was at the Shell Petroleum Development Company as Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance Supervisor from 1995 – 1997. She is also a pioneer member of the Academic Computer Network for Developing Countries sponsored by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy in 1995; which resulted in a Campus-wide area network at OAU Ife.

In 1995, Ehimuan began career as Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance Supervisor at the Shell Petroleum Development Company until 1997 when she left the firm. She then joined Microsoft UK as a Program Manager who oversaw projects for MSN subsidiaries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa; and then Business Process Manager for MSN International. In 2005, she left Microsoft to start Strategic Insight Consulting Ltd UK, focused on providing collaborative program that connect African Business leaders and Professionals with their global counterparts.

After schooling and working for 12 years outside Nigeria, she moved back to the country because she felt she could do more to drive technology-enabled growth and productivity. Two years after moving back, she joined Google and saw it as a great opportunity to make a difference with technology.

A Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society, Ehimuan’s contributions to technology and entrepreneurship has won her several awards and recognitions. She is a recipient of the London Business School Global Women’s Scholarship, and while at the University of Cambridge, she received two scholarly awards – Selwyn College Scholar and Malaysian Commonwealth Scholar. In 2012, she won the “IT Personality of the Year” at the 2012 National Information Technology Merit Award.

As Google Country Manager in Nigeria, she has proven her worth as a top-rated technology and business leader with a long list of achievements to show for it. She however, ascribes her accomplishments to great team effort indicating her role is to lead the team towards a common vision and coordinate the great talent we have towards key strategic goals.

As the head of Google’s operations in Africa’s largest Internet community, Juliet is charged with the responsibility of representing the company in all its business development projects and partnership opportunities in the region.

Under her leadership, Google Nigeria has launched a series of innovative products and services  aimed at building the online ecosystem in Nigeria through a three-pronged strategy – (1) driving initiatives around Internet access to make the internet more available and affordable to the Nigerian user, (2) facilitating local content development, and (3) building capacity.

One of the key focus areas has been local content creation because the Internet would be more useful for people, if they can find locally relevant information. To this end, a number of products and programs have been deployed to support the creation of local content. For example in 2011, a nationwide program called Get Nigerian Businesses Online was launched. As part of this program, there was provision of 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 amongst other functions.

Google is also helping to get Nigerian movies, music, arts, fashion shows, educational content, news, sports, etc. on YouTube in its bid to promote local content from Nigeria. Youtube.ng was launched in 2011 – the year she was appointed. This localized version of YouTube provides a good platform for Nigerian multimedia and video content creators to showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural, social, educational, Journalistic, entertainment and other relevant content. And Google has been signing up local partners and entrepreneurs who are generating revenue from their content on YouTube and tapping into the export market as the Internet enables you to cross geographical boundaries.

To ensure a sustainable ecosystem, Google is involved in building capacity in Nigeria by training developers, students and businesses on how they can build great Apps, promote their businesses online, and enhance the quality of learning through access to global libraries of information on the Internet.

As a woman in technology, Juliet believes there is room for women to do more in the Nigerian tech space. She believes women can benefit from more support, knowledge sharing communities, and access to resources. With the immediate foregoing in mind, Google Nigeria, in commemoration of the 2016 International Women’s Day trained female entrepreneurs on digital marketing and organized a developer summit for women; this digital marketing training provided female entrepreneurs from different fields of business with an expanded knowledge base aimed at improving their business performance using digital technology. The developer summit provided resources, mentoring, and a code lab and design sprint to support female developers in building great products.

Google also has a dedicated programme for female developers – Women Techmakers – aimed at supporting women in technology. Women Techmakers launched in 2014, is also focused on empowering women in their careers by providing access to curated resources and events, as well as information and tools from Google, our partners. Nigerian women can tap into Google’s gender friendly programme by simply registering at www.womentechmakers.com.

She advises every woman to set a clear vision for herself, and must believe she has what it takes, and develop a plan to get there. The plan can include learning required skills, leveraging coaches or mentors, developing partnerships, etc. Regardless of her tough job, she strives to ensure that a healthy work-family life balance is maintained. She also enjoys music, dance, and theatre.