Epsilon Award for Career Achievement: Dr. Tayo Ibikunle (JPMorgan Chase)

National BDPA annually selects and awards the BDPA Epsilon Award to recognize and celebrate key contributions and accomplishments of its members. Nominations are accepted across five categories and they are evaluated by a team of National BDPA members.

One of the categories is Career Achievement. This honor is reserved for highly experienced professionals who have significant career accomplishments or contributions throughout their career.

BDPA is pleased to announce that Dr. Tayo Ibikunle has won the 2013 Epsilon Award for Career Achievement. He is a highly respected technologist with over 18 years of technology based experience with JPMorgan Chase (JPMC). Tayo Ibikunle has also held diverse senior positions, across many key businesses – including Investment Banking, Middle Markets, Retail, Corporate Sector, Credit Card business, Mortgage Banking and most recently in Consumer & Community Banking. As Chief Technology Officer of the Chase Financial Services Customer Center of Excellence, Tayo was responsible for delivering information technology (IT) solutions to enable an integrated customer experience across customer channels and touch-points. He also assumed IT leadership responsibilities for the Middle Market business segment, which managed the firm’s relationships for over 12,000 corporate clients. Among other key roles, Tayo has held positions of Co-Chief IT Architect and Chief Technical Architect.

Prior to joining JPMC, Tayo was Senior Strategic Manager at Sybase Engineering in California. Before taking the role of Senior Strategic Manager, Tayo was a Principal Consultant working with several Wall Street and telecommunication Firms to build large scale, distributed trading and processing engines for their businesses. At Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom, Tayo was a Principal Research Engineer and worked on key pattern recognition and image processing technologies

Dr. Ibikunle has both an MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London, as well as a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University Of Ife, Nigeria. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

Tayo is a dedicated advocate for diversity within the workplace and serves as a mentor to many. Tayo took on the role of Executive Sponsor of JPMC’s engagement with BDPA – a major career and leadership network for Black IT professionals - in 2006. It is under his leadership that the JPMC BDPA Leadership Forum was established. This forum consists of representatives from various JPMC IT facilities across the United States where we have engaged with a local BDPA chapter. He is also on the Global Steering Committee for BOLD (Black Organization for Leadership Development) and a member of the Firm-wide Technology Diversity Council. Tayo serves as a director of the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation since his appointment in 2008.

The award nomination was submitted by BDPA Northern Delaware chapter president Karen Smith.

More Wealthy Americans Donating Through Foundations

BETF Directors Tayo Ibikunle and John Eckenrode are leading an effort to increase the flow of donations from high net-worth individuals into our SITES Endowment Fund. We were intriqued by an article written by Bradenton Herald's Grace Gagliano about the charitable giving of wealthy Americans. Here is an excerpt:

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The charitable giving of wealthy Americans like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates has called attention to philanthropy as a way to give back to the community while you are still living. Instead of leaving behind large estates that are taxed heavily before distributed, the wealthy can give through charitable organizations and protect their portfolios from government taxes.

Read full text.

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What would it take for you to give back to BDPA through our SITES Endowment Fund?

Tayo Ibikunle Appointed to BDPA Foundation

BDPA Education & Technology Foundation (BETF), a tax-exempt non-profit organization that provides financial support for education and technology programs of Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), announced the appointment of Tayo Ibikunle, Ph.D as a member of the BETF Board of Directors. Mr. Ibikunle is a seasoned IT executive with decades of years of experience in strategic planning initiatives.

"I am excited to work with Dr. Ibikunle in his new role as a Board member to continue delivering value to BETF stakeholders, students and sponsors,” said Wayne Hicks, BETF executive director. "He comes to us highly recommended by his peers in the industry. Tayo's executive experiences with JPMorgan Chase over the years, as well as his current role as the JPMorgan Chase executive sponsor for BDPA, make him uniquely qualified to assist BETF. BETF is fortunate to have her in this leadership role."

Tayo Ibikunle is a Senior Technology Director in Chase Credit Card Services and is currently the head of Core Processing technology for the business. After leading the successful migration of one of the largest credit card processing systems in the world, Tayo has accountability for end-to-end IT services for the core processing platform going forward, with direct responsibility for Application Delivery. Since 2006, Tayo has been Executive Sponsor of JPMC’s engagement with BDPA.

Tayo Ibikunle has also held several senior IT roles at JPMorgan Chase, across many of the key businesses – including the Investment Bank, the Middle Market Business, the Retail business, the Corporate Sector and most recently the Credit Card business. In these capacities, Tayo was responsible for delivering IT solutions to enable an integrated customer experience across customer channels and touch-points. He also assumed IT leadership responsibilities for the Middle Market business segment, which managed the firm’s relationships for over 12,000 corporate clients.

Among other key roles, Tayo has held positions of Co-Chief IT Architect and Chief Technical Architect. Prior to joining JP Morgan, Tayo was Senior Strategic Manager at Sybase Engineering in California. Before taking the role of Senior Strategic Manager, Tayo was a Principal Consultant working with several Wall Street and Telecommunication Firms to build large scale, distributed trading and processing engines for their businesses. At Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom, Tayo was a Principal Research Engineer and worked on key pattern recognition and image processing technologies.

Tayo has both an MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London, as well as a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Ife, Nigeria. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

Tayo is happily married and together with his wife of 19 years, has three sons. He is also actively involved and has leadership responsibilities in a number of non-profit organizations – including ACF USA, a non-profit organization focused on socioeconomic development in Africa. He is also an active sponsor of an inner city school in the city of Philadelphia. He has also led fund-raising activity for major business units at JPMC for the United Way and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Ibikunle to the BDPA Foundation family.