By Professor Earl N. Caldwell, II
Welcome to Global Conversations With The Fly Prof. In this edition, you will meet a young man who was raised in England, but whose educational pursuits and professional experiences have taken him across Africa, the United States, and China. Exposure to diverse cultures, markets, and opportunities helped shape a global perspective that ultimately led him into the world of technology and, more specifically, the rapidly evolving field of data. His journey demonstrates how curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace international experiences can open doors to exciting and impactful careers in the global economy.
The son of Nigerian parents, he was born and raised in South London. Throughout his childhood, he regularly traveled between London and Lagos, Nigeria, spending significant time in both cities until he was approximately 10 or 11 years old.
His Yoruba name is Olanrewaju which translate to “wealth is advancing” or “prosperity is moving forward,” reflecting the hope that he would continue to build upon and expand the success, honor, and blessings of those who came before him.
Growing up, his family affectionately called him “Lan Ray,” a shortened version of his Yoruba name. When he started school, the nickname gradually evolved into “Lanry,” a name that became more commonly used among classmates and friends. As he got older, many people simply referred to him as “Ray.” The multiple variations of his name eventually created practical challenges, particularly while traveling internationally, including occasions when airline tickets were booked under different names, resulting in missed flights and formally adding “Ray” to his name.
The 16-year-old English teenager made the bold decision to leave home and enroll at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Reflecting on his college experience, Ray says, “Wow, what a wonderful experience. I’m a big fan of American culture and music produced by African Americans. I always have been. It was a huge honor to be in Atlanta at that time. And then, of course, there’s an extra special layer of having the Morehouse experience. It helped me understand history and the challenges that our people have been through. The word I would use to sum up my time is empowerment. The feeling I left Morehouse with was as a Morehouse Man, I could pretty much do anything, and I would be fully supported in that journey.”
After graduating from Morehouse College in 2001 and spending two years in the workforce, Mr. Lawal made another bold and unconventional decision—he moved to China to teach English and immerse himself in a completely different culture while learning Mandarin. At one point he was an African kid from South London. Then he was living in the American South attending Morehouse College. The next thing he was living in China, learning Mandarin, teaching English, and fully embracing a culture that was completely different from anything he had previously experienced.
Ray notes “I think that that strength of adaptability, it’s not always easy, stepping out of your comfort zone.
But it’s the strength that has obviously carried me through my life. You know, the ability to kind of look at the status quo, the environment, critique it, know that you’re able to change it.”
In 2005, Ray left China and returned to London to pursue a master’s degree at the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His decision to attend SOAS was a natural extension of the global experiences and interests he had developed while living and working abroad. Upon completing his graduate studies, he joined IBM, a move that would launch his career in technology.
The decision to enter the technology sector was rooted in what Ray describes as an “aha moment” during his time in China. As an English teacher, he worked with 15-, 16-, and 17-year-old students who were remarkably connected to the world beyond their borders. Through the internet, they were familiar with Western culture, popular music, sports, celebrities, and global trends despite never having left China.
At the same time, mobile phones, laptops, and internet technologies were beginning to transform how people communicated, learned, and conducted business. Observing these developments firsthand convinced Ray that technology would become one of the most powerful forces shaping the future.
While pursuing his master’s degree at SOAS, Ray’s growing interest in technology was reinforced by coursework that explored the broader social and cultural forces shaping the modern world. Two courses in particular—Anthropology and Post-National Communication—left a lasting impression on him.
These courses examined themes such as globalization, media, communication, identity, and the impact of emerging technologies on societies around the world. They explored how advances in communication and information technology were reshaping relationships between people, businesses, governments, and cultures, often transcending traditional national boundaries.
The combination of his experiences in Nigeria, the United States, and China, together with the academic frameworks he encountered at SOAS, helped him connect the dots between technology and global development. He became increasingly convinced that access to information, communication, and digital technologies would fundamentally reshape economies and societies around the world.
Determined to better understand this rapidly evolving landscape, Ray decided to build a career in technology. IBM represented the ideal starting point. As one of the world’s leading technology companies, IBM offered exposure to cutting-edge innovation, global markets, and large-scale business transformation initiatives.
IBM’s Graduate Program provided Ray with an ideal entry point into the technology industry. The program combined structured training courses with practical business experience, giving recent graduates the opportunity to develop both technical and professional skills while learning how to contribute effectively to IBM’s global operations.
It was during this time that Ray started to recognize his love for business development. Trying to spot opportunities for customers to do more with technology and then leverage IBM’s capability to make that opportunity real. That interest evolved into his focus towards business development, sales and marketing and various positions including selling software and hardware solutions.
Although IBM’s Graduate Program was designed as a two-year development program, Ray’s progress within the organization led to an opportunity even sooner. After approximately 18 months, he secured a permanent position in business development, marking the beginning of a successful career trajectory within the company. In total, he spent five years at IBM, gaining valuable experience in technology, sales, client engagement, and large-scale business transformation initiatives.
One of the highlights of his IBM career was his involvement in a £50 million (fifty million pound) transaction with one of the United Kingdom’s largest mortgage providers. The project exposed him to the complexity of enterprise-level technology solutions and the strategic role technology plays in helping large organizations improve operations, serve customers, and remain competitive.
Another important aspect of his IBM experience was the mentorship he received from senior leaders within the organization. One mentor in particular, an IBM Senior Director, played a significant role in his development and later facilitated Ray’s transition to SAP, the global German software company and one of the world’s leading enterprise technology providers.
After a brief tenure at SAP and an emerging technology start-up, Ray joined Zendesk, a fast-growing software company founded by three Danish entrepreneurs. At the time, Zendesk was still in its early stages, employing fewer than 300 people globally.
Based in the United Kingdom, Ray was responsible for sales and business development activities across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The role provided extensive exposure to a diverse range of markets, cultures, and business environments, further strengthening the global perspective he had developed throughout his career.
Two years after Ray joined Zendesk, it underwent a significant transformation. The company relocated its headquarters from Copenhagen to San Francisco, placing itself at the center of the global technology ecosystem and achieved another major milestone by becoming a publicly traded company on the U.S. stock market.
For Ray, witnessing and contributing to that growth was an invaluable learning experience. He gained firsthand insight into what it takes to scale a technology company from an ambitious start-up into a global enterprise. The experience deepened his understanding of business growth, international expansion, organizational scaling, and the role that technology plays in serving customers around the world.
By the time Ray left Zendesk in 2016, the company had grown from fewer than 300 employees to more than 2,000 people worldwide. The experience added another important chapter to his growing technology career, providing him with practical lessons in innovation, global business development, scaling organizations, and navigating the fast-paced world of high-growth technology companies.
In 2016, Apple came calling and presented Ray with an opportunity he simply could not refuse. By that time, Apple had firmly established itself as one of the world’s most successful consumer technology companies, driven largely by the tremendous success of the iPhone and its broader ecosystem of products. However, while Apple dominated the business-to-consumer market, its presence within the business-to-business sector was still relatively limited.
At the time, Apple devices were often associated with creative professionals, designers, musicians, and media companies. They were less commonly viewed as enterprise tools for large organizations, particularly for functions such as corporate communications, productivity, and business operations. Apple recognized that there was a significant opportunity to expand its footprint within the enterprise market and sought talented professionals who could help accelerate that growth.
The opportunity represented the perfect convergence of his experience in technology, international business development, and enterprise software. He joined apple in July 2016. After five years Ray was named the Country Manager in Nigeria and moved there to help build Apple’s business across West Africa.
Professionally, Ray believes that his time in Nigeria played a significant role in preparing him for opportunities that might not have been available had he remained solely within the United Kingdom. Working and living in different markets gave him a broader perspective on business, growth, and the practical realities of building organizations in emerging and developing economies.
Those experiences proved invaluable when Apple presented him with the opportunity to help expand its operations in Africa. The role involved much more than simply selling products. Ray was tasked with helping establish and grow Apple’s business presence in a new market, requiring him to work across multiple disciplines and functions.
His time at Apple also coincided with a particularly exciting period in the company’s growth. During his tenure, Apple introduced Apple Music, expanding beyond hardware and devices into subscription-based digital services. The launch represented an important evolution in Apple’s business model and created new opportunities for market development, partnerships, customer engagement, and revenue growth.
Ray reflects on his Apple experience and his ancestral home.
“Having the opportunity to join one of the world’s greatest companies was a huge privilege. It was an opportunity to really develop my enterprise sales skills. One thing that Apple has that not too many other B2B companies have was the ability to open doors. CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs will take a meeting with you because you’re from Apple. I had never really experienced that, even with IBM. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work in that organization and see how business can be run in the right way. It was a wonderful experience. I’ve got to call out the sun. Just having the sun on your skin every day was almost addictive. It was a beautiful experience.”
In 2025, with the birth of his second child on the way, Ray and his family decided to move back to the UK.
Currently, his focus is on a buy and build, mergers and acquisitions strategy within the IT services landscape. His holding company, The Alira Group buys small and medium-sized IT service providers to increase the value that customers can get from a single IT service provider engagement, as opposed to having several. The focus is on the data services space. They recognize that in order for businesses to truly get trustworthy value out of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, their data needs to be organized, structured and managed in a way that AI can effectively engage with it. Also, the companies they seek to purchase will be able to cross-sell their capabilities to the other companies within the holding company.
In closing Ray encourages young people to:
“Look for those opportunities to take yourself out of your comfort zone, in a small and educated way.
But, by taking yourself out of your comfort zone, that’s where you really have the opportunity to grow.”
For more information about Ray Lawal Http://linkedin.com/in/raylawal
For more information about The Alira Group https://aliragroup.co.uk
If you have comments, suggestions, or ideas for future topics or individuals to feature in the upcoming editions of Global Conversations, I’d love to hear from you.
The Fly Prof.
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