Olugbenga Agboola is a Nigerian software engineer and entrepreneur who survived a brutal kidnapping and became an Internet celebrity. He was born in Nigeria in 1968 and moved to the United States with his mother when he was nine. After struggling with math, he found computer programming at Essex County College, where they taught BASIC on mainframes. Eventually, he received degrees from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.
According to an interview with “The Makers” podcast, Olugbenga is Yoruba for “one that brings all his enemies together.”After working for AT&T Bell Laboratories, he had a brief stint at Netscape but found that there needed to be more room for advancement. He decided to create his own company, and in 2000, Agboola founded Infoteria.
Education
He has a B.S. in Computer Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a Master’s from Carnegie Mellon University, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Cranfield University, U.K. He also has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix through its “Campus in a Box” program.
He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he is an Adjunct Faculty Member and course developer for the software engineering program. He previously taught as an adjunct at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, while working on his MBA and MSCS.
Read more about Olugbenga Agboola on Nigerian Tribune
Career
Agboola has been working as a programmer and a computer scientist since 1993. He co-founded and created several companies in the gaming market, such as I-RING, Infoteria, and First Game. Agboola has also worked on various websites, including Global Voices Online, Yahoo! Answers, KickStarter.com, HubPages, and ExtremeTech. Agboola currently works for EchoPixel LLC in Stow – Massachusetts, and lives with his family in New Jersey.
Agboola’s greatest passion is technology. In a conversation with “The Makers” podcast, he stated that technology connects people. He sees technology as a tool for good and not the evil of many in our world. Olugbenga Agboola formed his own I-RING company in 2000, and it capitalized over 100 million dollars when he sold it to VIVO Gaming Innovation from China.
Business
In 1999, Agboola founded Infoteria. The primary purpose of this corporation was to develop I.T. solutions and products. In 2000, Infoteria was listed 11th in the Internet Software Top-50 list compiled by JI Asia. The company employed more than 30 software engineers and was one of many companies to train in Java.
🎉🏥 Thrilled to have our wonderful Director Fola Laoye, join me at our brand-new Iwosan Lagoon Hospital, VI, Lagos.Our aligned vision of bringing world-class advanced medical care to Nigeria has finally become a reality. 🇳🇬❤️ https://t.co/WhAyRsV77e pic.twitter.com/jxV8cONlTN
— GB 🦋 (@TechProd_Arch) April 22, 2023
Impact on the Community
Olugbenga has given back to his community with actions, not only with his words. He is a founding member of The Nigeria Software Industry Roundtable. He has been working and advocating for the growth of the I.T. industry. Olugbenga served as a judge for Nigeria’s first developer conference called ING-NEXTDEV. At this conference, he spoke about his journey from Nigeria to the United States and how he managed to begin his own software company. He is also an advocate for computer programming education.
Agboola is a very humble man. He understands the value of each person, and his goals are to make the world a better place. Therefore, he has taken time to share with his readers and world members how he managed to start his own cyber business and become an Internet celebrity. Olugbenga Agboola is highly concerned with ensuring people have access to technology in developing countries like Nigeria.
Read more: https://www.makemoney.ng/olugbenga-agboola