Tomi Davies
 |
Tomi Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born | Harry Tomi Davies June 9, 1955 |
| Alma mater | University of Miami |
| Known for | angel investment, startups, advisor, speaker |
| Notable work | Supa Strikas, The African Project Manager |
| Partner | Lola Davies |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | tomidavies |
Harry Tomi Davies (born June 9, 1955) is a Nigerian British investor, speaker, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and advisor to technology companies.[1][2][3] He is the chief executive officer of TVCLabs, a technology business accelerator based in Lagos and also sits on the boards of Sproxil, Strika Entertainment, TechnoVision Communications and PeoplePrime. Davies is co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network and founding President of the African Business Angel Network.[4][5]
Early life
Davies was born on June 9, 1955. He attended his primary education at Corona School, Victoria Island, Lagos and later proceeding for his secondary school education at King's College, Lagos and St Gregory's College, Ikoyi, Lagos respectively.[citation needed]
Davies is an alumnus of University of Miami and University of Miami School of Business.[citation needed]
Business career
Early career
After graduating from University of Miami, Davies worked briefly for IBM as a Systems Engineer before returning to Nigeria to join the oil giant Elf Acquitaine's marketing company where he became its Head of Data Processing. He returned to the UK in 1990 and joined Marks and Spencer where he became Head of IT Research, registering the retail brands domain and building its first website. He then worked as an Executive Consultant with Ernst & Young where his clients included AB&B, Legal & General, Prudential and Novartis. During the late 1990s dotcom era, he ran the E&Y business incubator Futurewealth,co,uk as the Chief Operating Officer. On acquisition of its consulting practice by Cap Gemini, Davies and his incubator team joined Sapient where he became Head of Strategy and built direct.gov.uk for the United Kingdom government. He returned to Nigeria as Chief Operating Officer of public-sector consultants Alteq and implemented the World Bank-funded pilot of the first-ever biometric-based Integrated Payroll & Personnel System (IPPIS) for the Federal Government of Nigeria.[6]
Business Angel investing
In August 2012, Davies began angel investing in ernest by co-founding Lagos Angel Network which is a network of individuals and organizations who invest in and mentor start-ups based in Lagos, Nigeria. He later moved on to be the co-founder and President of the African Business Angels Network, a pan-African non-profit association founded to support the development of early-stage investor networks in November 2014.[7][8]
African Business Angel Network is a consortium of independent African angel investing networks including Lagos Angel Network, Cameroon Angel Network, Cairo Angels, Ghana Angel Network, Venture Capital for Africa, Silicon Cape, Middle-East Business Angels Network and the European Business Angel Network.
Davies through his role as African Business Angel Network president now travels to several countries to support the development of early-stage investment networks and help educate local investors.[9][10]
After helping found the company in 1999, in 2009, Davies became the Chief Executive Officer of TechnoVision, a technology advisory and solutions company which provides these services to private and public-sector clients through its offices in London and Lagos. From 2010 to 2012 he joined the team that revived Mobitel as its Chief Operating Officer.[11] After this, Davies returned to TechnoVision as Collaborator in Chief to set up the technology business accelerator services arm of the business.
Davies owns Strika Entertainment Nigeria, which is the publisher of SupaStrikas in Nigeria and Ghana.[12] SupaStrikas comics is a fantasy football league comic and Africa's highest-circulation publication, with over one million copies circulated monthly to South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia and Botswana.
In 2009, after investing in and helping develop the company's business model, Davies was appointed as Director for Sproxil Nigeria. He acted as the first Managing Director for the company in Nigeria from 2012 to 2014 and left the Board after over seven years but remains a shareholder.
SlimTrader
Davies served as an advisor at SlimTrader.[13]
Philanthropy
Davies co-founded Laptop 4 Learning, an initiative created to provide access screen-based technology to underprivileged primary school children and their teachers.[14] Working closely with the State and Local Governments, school administrators, parents and local community leaders in Nigeria.[15]
Recognition
Davies was named the Icon of Hope at the Comic Panel Hero Award 2014. Davies was also given a Distinguished SME Partner Award by Fidelity Bank Nigeria In 2011, he was named Information Technology Champion by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON).[citation needed]
Personal life
Tomi Davies is married to Lola Davies and they have three children together.[citation needed]
Published works
Davies first published book was titled Corporate Bold: What Every Corporate Professional Should Know (ISBN 978-1462015139) on June 28, 2011. He later went on to co-author Cracking The Success Code with Brian Tracy (ISBN 978- 0985364304) on May 25, 2012 and The African Project Manager: Managing Projects Successfully in Africa (ISBN 978-1494285340) on September 19, 2014.[16]
References
- ^ "Meet the Investor: Tomi Davies". Disrupt Africa. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
- ^ "Systems Analysis Expert Harry 'Tomi Davies Named as One of America's PremierExperts®". Retrieved 13 March 2012.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Tomi Davies Speaks On Retirement, The African Tech Scene And Angel Investors". TechCabal. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
- ^ "Interview with Tomi Davies". Startups West Africa. Bertrams Lukstins. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "Poetic Investments With Tomi Davies". African Tech Conversations. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ "Berkshire Rooms appoints two directors". Serviced Apartments News. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
- ^ "The African Business Angel – An Early Stage Investment Opportunity". The European Trade Association for Business Angels. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ "12 investors to provide seed funds for tech start-ups". Vanguard Newspaper. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ "Ingressive hosts "Tour of Tech" – an Investment Tourism to Convene Silicon Valley and Silicon Africa". BellaNaija. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
- ^ "H.Tomi Davies at African Investors Summit: "The world is expecting what we can achieve and ready to support us."". Afrik Diaspo News. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ "Nigeria's Mobitel appoints new COO". IT News Africa. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
- ^ "Nigeria: Malta Guinness, Mr. Biggs Okay Supa Strikas". All Africa. Retrieved 12 March 2004.
- ^ "Slim Trader Company Profile Driven By Pitch Book Platform". Pitch Book.
- ^ "How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ "LMLG primary school gets 28 laptops, 14 tablets for e-learning". Vanguard Newspaper. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ^ "Business Expert Harry 'Tomi Davies Hits Amazon Best-Seller List". Press News Room. Retrieved 11 September 2012.