Following a move away from the corporate world, Tom Ilube has created an exceptional legacy of successful businesses. Once described as: “A true leader of people who can generate incredible results by supporting and fostering brilliance in others around him”, he now stands as the CEO of the African Gifted Foundation. A pioneering organisation, it is led by African and UK executives and educational experts with the aim of developing opportunities for talented children in Africa.

He was kind enough to take the time to sit down with us and share some insights into his world.

 

The most memorable place I have been in the past year is…

A week on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island

If I had to choose one vacation destination for the rest of my life it would be…

Santa Fe & Taos, New Mexico in the USA. We spent our honeymoon there

My favourite city is…

London because it’s simply the best. The history and the diversity. There is nowhere that comes close

I always go back to eat at…

Kettners, the gloriously glamorous West End restaurant, haunt of Oscar Wilde, Bing Crosby and even King Edward VII

The most exhilarating culinary experience I have ever had was…

Pan fried monk fish, fresh from the Caribbean seas, cooked by Big Grandma (my wife’s grandmother) for breakfast in Montego Bay

I am currently reading…

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

If I was asked to fill a large domestic space with art I would…

Contact DegreeArt.com and choose or commission new works from some of the UK’s most promising student and graduate talent

My style icon is…

Gary Oldman in his role as George Smiley in TInker Tailor Soldier Spy

My best loved piece of clothing is… because

My 15 year old woolly comfort jumper. When my wife sees me wearing that she thinks “oh dear, what’s happened now?”

If I had to choose between theatre, opera, film and dance I would pick…

I love wandering off to watch a good film on my own on a quiet weekday afternoon (if I get the chance!)

My favourite movie is…

Bladerunner. That line “all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain”

When I was 25 my ambition was to…

Work for a top tier investment bank or consultancy. I ended up doing both (PwC and Goldman Sachs) and realised corporate life wasn’t for me after all!

My alternative career path would have been…

I grew up with Jacques Cousteau on TV and dreamed of being an underwater photographer.

The fundamental characteristics of being a successful entrepreneur are..

As well as the usual stuff (vision, drive etc), you need a special relationship with failure and the ability to bounce back again and again and again…

The most exciting developments in the technology industry in 2015, from my perspective are…

The rise in machine learning. We are applying machine learning to cyber security defences. It makes your head spin!

The person I would be most interested to meet, dead or alive is…

The 1965 Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. Now that was a chap who lived a full life

The greatest challenge I have had to surmount in my life so far is…

The untimely death of my big brother, Jim, a couple of years ago. I haven’t nearly surmounted it. I just need to be at peace with it

As a member of a Pub quiz team, my specialist category would be…

Particle physics, quantum theory, string theory. I would get all the questions wrong but I read Applied Physics at university and that’s my holiday reading each year

This time in ten years I will be…

Chairman of the African Science Academy, the new school for academically gifted African girls to study science, technology and mathematics that we are working hard to build in Ghana.

African Gifted Foundation; http://www.africangifted.org

Kettner’s; http://www.kettners.com

Degree Art for sale online; http://www.degreeart.com

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