Tell us a bit about your educational and career background

My name is Kayode Nubi, but I’m generally called Nubi Kay. I’m from Nigeria and I moved to Ireland in 2013 to study in Smurfit Business School on the back of being involved in a tech start-up in Nigeria. I had done my undergrad in electrical engineering at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Turkey and then did a Master’s in IBusiness - Innovation Through ICT (now MSc Digital Innovation) in UCD. 

The plan was to spend one year here doing the Master’s and to then go back to Nigeria to work on another start-up. But while I was at UCD I won Accenture’s Leaders of Tomorrow Award for developing a smartphone app. That landed me a six-month internship with Accenture and then I got a full-time role there for two-and-a-half years in the Financial Services Division working as a Project Manager and a Business Analyst. I was mainly working on projects with bank clients.

I got exposed to fintech there because of Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab and I thought it sounded interesting. I knew because of my first start-up how hard it was to integrate payments online and so I got to learn about Stripe. I subsequently joined Stripe in 2016 and I’ve been there for almost five years. 

I joined Stripe as a product specialist, supporting customers, including helping start-ups get up and running. I did that for about a year and then moved into a Programme Manager position, which I did for another year. Then I moved into a sales role as I wanted to explore other parts of the organisation. That allowed me the opportunity to get back to my roots and deal with start-ups. So I was working with CEOs, CTOs and Heads of Finance in start-ups to figure out how to better leverage Stripe to help them with their growth and scaling up. I did that for about six months. 

What is your current role?

In the last couple of months I’ve just moved into a new role on the Paystack side. Stripe acquired Paystack, a Nigerian payments company, for around US$200m last year. It’s part of Stripe’s expansion strategy into Africa. I’ve been seconded to the Paystack side as Start-up Programmes Lead. My job will be to explore how Paystack can better work and support start-ups in Africa in their growth. It’ll involve talking to founders and the start-up ecosystem stakeholders, like investors, accelerators and incubators, and developing programmes to make things easier for these companies and their founders. 

Once the world opens up there’ll be a lot of travel back to Africa. We’re in Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana right now and we have plans to launch in three more countries over the next few months and that will require me to be on the ground engaging with start-ups. 

What motivates you?

I’m very motivated by helping to enable growth, progress and success in people, whether it’s individuals with their careers or working with start-ups and businesses and seeing them leverage technology and optimise their processes and get tangible growth as a result. 

About 18 months ago a colleague of mine in Stripe and I started a community fund, HoaQ.club, to invest in early stage start-ups and it’s been phenomenal. We started it as an experiment and before the end of this year we’ll be deploying about a million dollars in African start-ups and founders. That gives me energy – playing the role of facilitating partnerships, knowledge transfer and anything that leads to tangible growth and development.

Who are the main people who have inspired you?

There are a few people. My dad is one. He’s a Pastor and a Professor in Nigeria and he’s somebody who’s dedicated to a life of service and lifting up people around him: as a Pastor he feeds your soul and as a Professor he feeds your mind. He could have gone and done anything he wanted to do professionally and looked to make a lot of money but he put himself in a position of service to his congregation as well as his students. 

It was great to see that example not too far off. 

My grandma is another influence. I guess my dad got the influence from my grandma so I got it from her. 

And my wife is another big influence. She’s definitely one of those go-getters. I’ve seen how she’s evolved as a person, from an athlete who got so many accolades and then going from an undergrad to doing a Master’s and now a PhD in so short a period that we've known each other. She's done all these gracefully while parenting our two wonderful daughters, Kike and Ire.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I have a coach kind of style. I want to be in the trenches with you but at the same time give you the room so you can grow yourself. My style is really hands on and engaging but trying to ensure there are results. As a coach or a mentor I’d be asking what’s the goal and what’s the plan, and then checking in regularly to see what progress has been made, what the blockers are and how I can help to unblock those. 

So I won’t be telling people what to do, but looking at what needs to be done and helping them to work towards the goal or outcome. 

What’s your biggest achievement to date?

I’m only getting started. There are things I’m proud and privileged to have been able to achieve but I haven’t scratched the surface yet. 

Is ongoing learning important?

It’s very important. I’m a big believer that you never stop learning. And that’s beyond the school walls. I like to consume knowledge in many different ways, whether it’s from listening to podcasts, reading articles or interacting with people who are on the same level or have gone before you or are behind you. There’s always something to learn from those interactions. I’m definitely one for continuous learning. 

What’s your best piece of career advice?

The biggest one is to start with what you have and where you are. I think it’s important not to push things back to when you have a certain amount of money or everything is perfect to start things. Even though what you want is not what you have right now, just start building towards that. 

When we started the fund it was just several of our friends putting together €1,000 each into our first deal and we just did that again and again and again. You start with what you have. 

Do you have career or business aspirations for the future?

I try to keep an open mind and focus on what looks like success or fulfilment for me. And that for me is enabling others to be successful. I try not to think about roles or titles but think more about how I scale the level of enablement that is possible.

Insight Track

How has your degree benefited your career and/or personal life?

My degree at UCD made me a better manager and entrepreneur. It provided me the knowledge and skills to work cross-functionally and think critically through problems to come up with solutions that are both feasible but also scalable.

What is your fondest memory from your time in UCD Smurfit School?
Running into my wife-to-be on the Smurfit campus while she was canvassing for votes to run for student representative. It happened to be on the same day as the Smurfit Ball. I later ran into her on the day the votes were being counted. She didn’t win the seat but I often joke that she got the better prize, me. 

What are your main interests outside work?

Faith – I am music and word minister at the Kings Arena Church, Dublin.
Family – spending time with my wife, Nana and our daughters, Kike and Ire.
Travel – I love to visit new and old places to make and relive memories.
Food – I love to cook and also eat out.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you

I started a band in college (Turkey) and composed original music that outlived my stay at the institution.

What piece of technology can you not live without?

My smartphone – communication, payment and resource all in one.

What is your pet hate?

When people are unkind.

Who’s your favourite writer and what’s your favourite book?

The writer is Malcom Gladwell and the book is Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen.

And what is your favourite musician?

Brymo.

What is your favourite place in the world to visit and why?

Istanbul because it’s the best of both worlds – Europe and Asia.

Where is home and why?

Home is where the heart is – a little bit of Ireland and Nigeria. 

What are your insider tips for visitors to Nigeria?

Be open minded and try new things. It helps to have a local friend while exploring.

Name three things on your bucket list

1. Climb Kilimanjaro
2. Hot air balloon in Cappadocia 
3. Dinner with Jay-Z

What charities or causes are closest to your heart?

• Habitat for Humanity
• Girls in STEM
• Foodcloud

November 2021

Always keen to have positive impact and step outside her comfort zone, Vivian Pucher left her native Germany to spend six months volunteering in a women’s cooperative in Guatamala at the age of just 18. Six years on and she’s working at Google in Dublin and a member of the Seachange Foundation board, as well as planning a triathlon and a stint in Tanzania working with entrepreneurs. 

Tell us a bit about your education and career to date
I grew up in the German Black Forest and after graduating from high school there wanted to see a bit of the world so I went to Guatemala for half a year to work in a cooperative of Mayan women. There I realised that nobody – including me, of course – had any idea how to run an organisation and that’s why I decided to study business. Because I’d learnt Spanish in Guatemala I went for a double degree between ESB Business School at Reutlingen University in Germany and Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid. After graduating in 2015, I went on to do my master’s in strategic management at Smurfit.

During my studies I did several internships in consulting and in the automotive sector as well as working for a start-up. Besides that I have always been very involved in university initiatives and did a lot of voluntary work. For example, during my time at Smurfit, I did a project on social impact measurement in Gujarat (India) with Shanti Life India Foundation, a microfinance organisation focusing on empowering women through business and sanitation loans. I am also now on the board of Seachange Foundation, a partner organisation of Shanti Life based here in Dublin.

Tell us about your role in Google
Last November, I joined the sales department in Google in Dublin where I am an account strategist. This involves working with small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany on how they can grow their businesses nationally and internationally with online marketing. It’s a fantastic team and I get to work with very smart people.

How do you feel your degree at UCD has benefited you most?
I think there are two dimensions to what I got out of my time at Smurfit. One of those is the personal side. In Smurfit I really made friends with people from all over the world. It always sounds so simple but I think we underestimate a lot those cultural differences between people. I learnt an incredible amount about working with very different cultures. On the other hand, content wise we learnt about many concepts that I wasn’t really aware of during my primary degree. I sometimes wondered why on earth we would learn this in strategy management. Now, being in the corporate world I see it all the time and remember back. It really turned out to be very useful for me in terms of being able to see the bigger picture.

What motivates you?
I think what motivates me most is to have an impact in a positive way and to be able to see what my work has done. In my current work, making clients happy is really motivating for me. So, it’s really about positive change.

What are your career goals? 
I have a mid-term plan and a longer term plan. I have done a lot of consulting, working on very strict business projects, and also NGO work and I would like to combine the two in the future. I would like to work more on the social side of business and that could be within Google or somewhere else. In the long term, I would like to return to university some day and share my experience. I could really see myself going back to academia... but that’s far away!

What for you is good leadership?
I think it depends a lot on the stage an organisation is at, but ultimately I would define it as being inspiring, having strong values and allowing your people to take risks and to think big. It’s not about showing what to do but more about showing what we are doing something for.
I have led projects in the past but haven’t yet been a leader professionally, but I think that’s the kind of leader I wish to become one day.

Who or what influences and inspires you?
I read recently that you are mostly influenced by the five closest people around you. Hence, I have been influenced a lot by my family and close friends. Nevertheless, when you move places a lot, also the people around you change. So it’s always shifting a bit and I see myself changing with it. So I’m probably really the cross sum of all the people that are close to me.

In terms of inspiration it’s a bit different. I’m really inspired by people who have strong ethical values and clearly stick to them. I’m inspired and interested by people who dedicate their lives to something amazing but manage to do so in a selfless manner. One, but certainly not the only, example would be Sheetal Walsh who I mentioned earlier. She is incredibly successful from a business point of view but still dedicates a huge part of her time to run a charity.

What achievement stands out for you so far?
Probably it’s the time I spent in Guatemala. I went there when I was 18 years old and spent six months in a mud hut. It was a very tough time. Since then, whenever things are getting difficult I always remind myself that I was able to do that at such a young age and that the challenge I’m facing now is not so big compared to it and I can probably achieve so much more. So, I always use it as my anchor point to put things into perspective.

Are there any failures you’ve learnt from?
Primarily my plan was to not even do a master’s degree but rather to start working right away. But I honestly failed at getting the job I really wanted straight after my primary degree. I was probably overconfident in what I had achieved and after I got rejected my whole self confidence broke down. Now I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to me. It was a really good learning that when something doesn’t work out the way it was supposed to then another door opens. Hence, I learned to move on and look forward.

What are your tips or advice for success? 
It might sound extremely naive but the thing that I benefited from the most and that I try to continue doing, is to say “yes” as much as possible. I try to embrace any opportunity that crosses my way. I think it’s better to have a bit too much on your plate than just staying inside your comfort zone. And I’ve always benefited in some way from the additional experience I have gained from just saying, “yes, sure, I will give it a try”.

Any immediate plans for the future you’d like to talk about?
For now, I’ll try to move on in my current workplace and will continue the work I’m doing with Seachange and Shanti Life. I’m also going to Tanzania for two weeks this summer with Google, working with entrepreneurs there. And I’d like to do a triathlon – that’s actually another point on my list for this year!

What are your main interests outside work?
I really like to do sports and I also love to travel. And I enjoy reading and I have just started painting recently.

Insight Track

How important is your UCD alumni network to you? 
So far it has been extremely helpful for having lovely friends in Asia when travelling there. But at the same time I see them all getting into great work positions, so also from a professional aspect I’m sure we’ll benefit a lot from our connections in the future.

Tell us one thing most people don’t know about you
Unfortunately I’m very chaotic and even more unfortunately I’m allergic to mangoes.

What is your pet hate? 
People walking super slow in front of me – I love being lazy but I hate to waste time unnecessarily.

Who’s your favourite writer?
Paulo Coelho has been extremely inspiring to me.

And what is your favourite band or musician?
It’s mainly one song that always gets me into an extremely happy mood: Golden Age (The Asteroids Galaxy Tour).

What’s the last gig you went to that you loved?
I went to a jazz concert by Christian Scott (my first one ever) two weeks ago and it was absolutely amazing.

What is your favourite dish to cook? 
I always like to cook exotic things I’ve never made before. And even more if they are really spicy.

What is your favourite place in the world to visit and why?
Freudenstadt (which actually translates to happy town) in the Black Forest...because there is no place like home.

Name three things on your bucket list
Run a marathon, be published somewhere and speak five languages fluently.