Taking a look at our Man Crush Monday – Chris Izu Okafor, the first thing that catches your attention is his calm demeanour. He is a Management Executive with expertise in strategic innovation, management communication, and business process automation. And with six years of experience from advertising to tech, he has been able to effectively blend creativity into operations.
Chris began his career journey in advertising, specifically web content development, copywriting, and account management, before transitioning to technology in 2017 when he joined the Patricia Technologies team and is currently its Chief Operating Officer (COO).
T. Patricia is a fintech startup that deals with alternative payments technology – cryptocurrency and blockchain. Its vision is to rewrite financial experiences across the globe using simple, smart, and accessible solutions. So far, the startup has recorded tremendous growth by putting crypto on the map in Nigeria and Africa. In four years, the company went from having 5,000 daily transactions to over 30,000; just three employees to over 300; and a single location to eight. In addition, they launched Africa’s first and only bitcoin debit card, and were recently named in Fourth Canvas’Africa Challenger Brands Top 20, along with various other awards.
Our Man Crush, Chris plays a vital role as the COO in ensuring the smooth running of business operations, that key resources are allocated efficiently and running optimally, and there is effective communication between the business units and the management team. Having a strong eye for strategic innovation and process automation, Chris works to solidify the pillars on which Patricia’s efficient operations are built.
Chris is a people person. He shows this through being a good team player and working as a high performer. To his credit, he has led the customer experience, sales, quality assurance, and operations teams over the years. According to him, his bias is always for developing a strong sense of leadership, ownership, and responsibility with the cross-functional teams he manages.
We respect his values which include integrity, efficiency, fairness, and respect. This goes to show that he is not just a man of substance with impeccable work ethics but someone who believes in creating lasting institutions. Currently in the Modular MBA programme at the prestigious Lagos Business School, Chris is
of the school of thought that posits learning as continuous. Whenever Chris is not changing the world at Patricia, he immerses himself in the world of books and writing opinion pieces. We couldn’t agree more than to make Chris our Man Crush Monday going by his impressive work and personality. He is a positive change agent and we love to be affiliated with him.