Femi Owolade-Coombes is an international keynote speaker on emerging technologies, inclusive leadership, and young entrepreneurship. Recently he has explored the Web3.0 landscape, co-hosting a London Tech Week fringe event focussing on the ‘Decentralising Power of Web3.0: Unlocking the Potential for Creative Entrepreneurship’ and leading panels with business leaders on DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) and the Metaverse. At the event he also launched the Global Tech Advocates: Young Entrepreneurs working group, drawing together young entrepreneurs from the UK, Africa, China and... Read More
Femi Owolade-Coombes is an international keynote speaker on emerging technologies, inclusive leadership, and young entrepreneurship.
Recently he has explored the Web3.0 landscape, co-hosting a London Tech Week fringe event focussing on the ‘Decentralising Power of Web3.0: Unlocking the Potential for Creative Entrepreneurship’ and leading panels with business leaders on DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) and the Metaverse. At the event he also launched the Global Tech Advocates: Young Entrepreneurs working group, drawing together young entrepreneurs from the UK, Africa, China and the ASEAN Region. Within this group he aims to demystify emerging technologies and clarify the business case for young entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year he received an offer to read chemical engineering and biotechnology at Cambridge university.
In February 2023 he visited Brunei, meeting with government ministers and business leaders to discuss the importance of fostering young coding communities and young entrepreneur ecosystems as they work towards becoming a smart nation. He has also represented Young British Tech Talent in Saudi Arabia at the MiSK Global Forum 2022, in China at the Inaugural Global Tech Advocates Festival in 2019 and in Thailand on behalf of the Department of International Trade at the UK-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2019.
He was recognised as the Young Digital Leader of the Year 2023 by the Digital Leader 100 awards for his work within the wider tech ecosystem over the past year.
During lockdown he developed a series of air quality sensors, initially collaborating with Canadian grassroots coding company, Brilliant Labs (https://www.brilliantlabs.ca), and going on to develop an interactive citizen science project exploring indoor air quality and ventilation, which he exhibited at the Tate Modern and at COP26.
Femi, who turned 18 in December 2023, has been sharing his passion for coding since he was 9 years old, when he co-founded South London Raspberry Jam, running Tourette’s Syndrome and Autism friendly coding events in grassroots communities within South London. Femi has run coding and robot workshops reaching hundreds of young people across the UK and internationally.
In 2017 he won an Inaugural Legacy Diana Award, aged 11, for his kindness, compassion and duty to the community, appearing on national television and radio. Soon after Femi successfully set up his own business, hackerfemo.com, delivering workshops and keynote talks to corporate companies and public organisations, whilst continuing his community work.
Femi has been awarded a Point of Light award from the former Prime Minister, Theresa May “in recognition of your exceptional service training young people in digital skills.” In 2019, he was commissioned to develop a coding curriculum for Red Hat’s CO.LAB programme for girls which attracted over 5 million social media impressions. He was named on the Independent’s Happy List 2018 and was recognised as one of the London Tech Advocates 25 Under 25s rising talents in 2019.