Ime Archibong is the head of a business development/product partnerships team at Facebook. Ime has been in charge of many of the business’s significant media-related partnerships, including those in the online video and music sectors.
Ime Archibong: Education
Ime has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Yale University. His home state is North Carolina.
Ime Archibong: Career
Ime worked as an Advanced Technology Business Development Professional at IBM before joining Facebook, where he was responsible for licensing IBM’s global portfolio of storage research technology. Ime began his employment with IBM as a software engineer in the Systems and Technology Group. He later moved to the IBM Corporate Strategy team and finally settled in business development.
In an interview with Vanguard, Ime discussed how Facebook views Nigeria and what benefits the multibillion-dollar company can reap from his visit to the country with his boss, Mark Zuckerberg.
He said:
“One of the things I had walked away with having spent time with many Nigerian young entrepreneurs and ecosystem partners I have met over time is the energy in their hustle. It really inspired me.
“I knew some of them who studied in the United States and decided to come and settle in Nigeria. But they are doing something really interesting in the ecosystem. I was really blown away by their dedication to transforming Nigeria.
“Despite the challenges prevalent in the environment here and indeed on the rest of this continent, there is still a lot of creativity coming out from this part of the world. I sit and scratch my head looking at the geniuses that come out of here despite the conditions and wondering what they can do in better conditions.
In a non personal capacity, I also want to learn and understand what is on the ground. It is an opportunity for Facebook to add value to what they are trying to do. More importantly, it is part of a listening and learning process for us to really appreciate what is happening around from fellow tech minds.”
As the Director of Strategic Partnerships, he oversees the group responsible for accelerating Facebook’s product strategy by forming alliances, fostering product integrations, and opening up fresh business prospects with top firms in numerous sectors and industries. Additionally, he assists the Internet.org team by managing their international collaborations with programmers and content producers that will hasten the online presence of the next 5 billion people.
