Venn Welcomes Young Tech Entrepreneur To Its Board
FREDERICTON–Venn Innovation has welcomed a new member to its board of directors.
In a call with Huddle, the newly-appointed Oluwatosin ‘Tosin’ Ajibola said he hopes to help make New Brunswick a more welcoming place for newcomers.
“We can develop skills of international students who come here and want to stay,” he said.
Ajibola, who came to New Brunswick as an international student from Nigeria in 2019, said he plans to focus on developing retention and integration strategies for newcomers.
He said a priority is to create new opportunities for people of colour who are entrepreneurs.
“I think a whole lot more people are trying to innovate or organizations that have an impact on the economy, but probably don’t know how to,” said Ajibola.
“My goal in this role will be to make sure a lot of people who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) have access to resources and services that can help them grow, expand, and get the right recognition and provide as much value as they can.”
Venn says Ajibola, who is an alumnus of the Venn’s Garage startup incubator program, brings a roster of relevant skills, experience, and leadership in the tech entrepreneurship field to the board.
He is a computer scientist, tech entrepreneur, and business development executive by trade.
Ajibola is CEO and co-founder of Welkom-U, an online service that helps newcomers, immigrants, and international students settle comfortably into life in New Brunswick life.
“That’s also kind of tied into helping newcomers settle down into Canada. We are a pretty new company,” he said.
Welkom-U started in May 2020 and went live in August. Ajibola said he plans to have the company expand into the rest of Atlantic Canada in the first quarter of 2022.
Ajibola is the winner of the 2022 RBC Student of the Year Leadership Award. He and fellow team members won the PlanetHatch Startup Up VISA award at the APEX student pitch competition in 2020.
Ajibola was appointed to Venn’s eight-member board at the company’s Nov. 24 AGM, and is also one of Atlantic Business Magazine’s Atlantic Canada’s 30 Under 30 Innovators.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].