Tolu Akindunni is a Venture Accelerator and Social Entrepreneur with 20 years of experience driving transformative change across complex global business environments. Her expertise spans digital transformation, emerging technologies, and strategic innovation, with a career spanning four continents. Tolu has held pioneering roles with global brands such as Saint-Gobain, Emirates Airlines, and the Rail Delivery Group (UK), fostering growth, agility, and customer-centric excellence.

Currently, Tolu is a key member of Saint-Gobain’s Central Innovation Team, where she reshapes the innovation landscape by driving capability building and strategic initiatives that accelerate revenue growth. As a trusted business partner, she is committed to cultivating a resilient culture and leveraging innovative business and service models to fuel success.

The Pop in Your Job (What moves you? Why do you love your job?)

What excites me most about my job is the opportunity to be at the forefront of pioneering transformation on an industrial scale. At Saint-Gobain, I’m deeply involved in shaping initiatives that will revolutionize markets for years to come, and I’m able to see these strategies deliver tangible results. I enjoy connecting the dots across different business units, influencing culture, and driving sustainable growth.

The dynamic nature of my role keeps me energized—I might be solving a problem in the U.S. one minute, and addressing a new challenge in Europe the next. I work alongside incredibly intelligent and experienced professionals, from PhDs to seasoned business leaders, ensuring there’s never a dull moment.

Beyond the business side, I’m driven by the chance to empower underrepresented communities. Helping them unlock opportunities with the right systems and structures is where the real pop in my work comes from, as it brings together multiple aspects of my career to serve the community.

Dima Tokar is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft. He drives interoperability for manufacturing customers by developing services that create seamless integration between cloud and edge. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dima was a Director of IoT and ML at Keurig, where he was responsible for developing and launching the company's first commercially available connected appliance. Before Keurig, Dima co-founded and led product development at MachNation, an IoT analyst and performance benchmarking firm. Dima holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and resides in the Greater Boston area.