Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh

Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh is a Ghanaian technology executive and entrepreneur who made history as the first African woman to serve as an executive director at IBM, and who now leads BrainWave AfricaTech, a company she founded to drive digital transformation across the continent. Her career bridges global corporate leadership and a personal mission to expand Africa's capacity in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics.

Born and raised in Accra, she grew up in a disciplined academic household in which her mother served as a headmistress. She holds a BA in Marketing and French from London Guildhall College and is an alumna of Harvard Business School, and a year spent studying in Belgium sharpened her fluency in French. Before entering the technology sector she worked in the United Kingdom for UBS Investment Bank and ABN AMRO Bank, gaining early exposure to international finance.

Kyerematen-Jimoh joined IBM in 2011 as territory marketing manager for West Africa and rose steadily through the organisation. She became the first woman to serve as IBM's Country General Manager in Ghana and ultimately took responsibility for IBM operations across North, East and West Africa, overseeing dozens of markets including Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya. Her appointment as the first African woman executive director at the company marked a milestone in the representation of African women in global technology leadership. She later moved to Microsoft, where she took on a strategic partnership role within its Africa Transformation Office, further deepening her influence over the continent's digital agenda.

While still working in the corporate technology world she developed the concept for her own venture, and in January 2025 she launched BrainWave AfricaTech. As founder and chief executive she has positioned the company to help African organisations adopt emerging technologies responsibly, with a focus on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data. The move represented a deliberate shift from multinational corporate life to building an African-owned enterprise addressing the continent's specific needs.

Beyond her business roles she has contributed to public institutions, serving on the governing board of the Bank of Ghana from 2021 to 2025. Her trajectory, from investment banking in London to the upper ranks of IBM and Microsoft and now to entrepreneurship, has made her a widely cited example of African women's leadership in technology. She continues to advocate for a homegrown digital economy in which African talent shapes the tools that transform the continent.