By Ebimo Amungo
Call him Mark Zuckerberg ‘s deputy and you would not be far from the truth, because they seem to be Siamese twins in fashioning new ideas that have transformed Facebook into something much more than a social media initiative. Ime Archibong is a Facebook insider who currently has 2 important jobs in the organisation. He is the Vice President of Partnerships and Manager of Strategic Partnerships.
Additionally, Ime Archibong has had 1 past job as the Advanced Technology Business Development Professional at IBM.
Ime Archibong is best known as the director of product partnerships at tech giant Facebook where he leads a team working to connect Facebook’s products and strategies with various business partners.
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Archibong and his team have worked on everything from the Facebook Messenger app to a relatively new initiative called Internet.org, which aims to connect the world to the internet.
Prior to working at Facebook, Archibong attended Yale and Stanford and worked for several years at IBM, a global leader in not only technology, but diversity initiatives.
Archibong told NIKITA RICHARDSON of FASTCOMPANY a little about his Nigerian heritage and upbringing.
Archibong said:
“I was born in Kansas, but was raised in North Carolina. Both my parents were Nigerian immigrants and they’re both professors, so we found our way [there]. I went to school and undergrad up at Yale and double majored in electrical engineering and computer science. After graduating, I was trying to figure out what field to go into and clearly tech was where I spent the majority of my academic pursuits looking towards.”
“I joined IBM as a software engineer out in Tucson, Arizona, where I worked on storage systems and servers, which aren’t that exciting to the majority of people in Silicon Valley, but I worked on that for a solid two-and-a-half, three years before [realizing] where I really wanted to spend time was more on the business and strategy side of the house. So, I left for business school—which is what brought me to the Bay Area—and I went to Stanford.”
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“For my parents, the pragmatic outcome that they see from education is, ‘Oh, you need to go be a doctor or go be a lawyer.’
We couldn’t see what the pragmatic outcome was of going and getting a computer science degree. Or going and getting an engineering degree. And it’s not that the stories weren’t being told, but the stories weren’t being told with people that looked like me and resonated with me. Steve Jobs was around when I was going through school. Bill Gates was around when I was going through school. But I don’t look at a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates and say, “Hey, that’s immediately someone who I think I can be like one day.”
The Rise of the African Multinational Enterprise: The most authoritative book on private enterprise in Africa. Get a Copy from SPRINGER
Ime’s presence in Facebook may have influenced certain decisions Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan pertaining to investing in Africa and African tech start ups. In 2016 The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative led a $24 million Series B round of funding into Andela., a New York-based startup that trains software developers in Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya and other African cities.
In 2017 Ime Achibong accompanied Mark Zuckerberg on a visit to Africa where the Facebook founder met presidents, tech entrepreneurs and young coders in Nigeria and Kenya. When he arrived Nigeria, he received a warm welcome as a worthy Nigerian Ambassador who plies his trade in Silicon Valley.