It’s a new year and we are starting the new decade with a bang! and a mini-series where we feature one of the awesome people who make up the Curacel team.

At Curacel, we’re on a mission to use technology to drive up insurance inclusion in emerging markets. To shed more light on that, only 3-5% of Africans have a health insurance cover. We have taken it upon ourselves to build solutions for enterprises and consumers to make a massive change in the insurance sector and drive up adoption.

There is no better or befitting way to start something this new (this Meet-A-Curalyte) than to introduce our Head of Innovation, Inno! See what we did there?

We are able to do a lot of what we do by the amazing work Inno does innovating and building models that use Artificial Intelligence to provide a wide range of solutions.

Inno, did you pick your name or your role to look alike?

Just noting that - Innocent - Innovation - Inno. Nope. Statistically, just a small chance of that happening,

Talk us through what you do for Curacel

Mainly leading the data/AI efforts and spearheading how the work here can translate to products that will delight our customers.

Would you mind walking us a bit through your background?

I grew up a nerd at heart. Always watching science/life documentaries on TV, and hours in similar books. Then found love in computing. I did a degree in project management technology while learning how to build software as a side passion. While in school, I was also part of Enactus, The experience will forever change me for the better - having a heart for the world and a head for business. Currently, this sense of passion to solve problems through business, and tech my first love. 

Your typical workday? Do you work remotely?

Yes. I work remotely. It starts with a very detailed to-do list written on paper. Then the marathon starts. Research, Code, run jupyter notebook, code again. Then meetings :( 

What does a weekend look like for you?

Most part of it is spent working though. The rest is spread with family and friends,because at the end of the day what is important is finding a balance between work and your personal life. 

If you could wave a magic wand to solve one problem globally, which would it be?

Cancer. Having a heart for the world like I said earlier is the reason why this readily comes to mind considering it is one disease that keeps taking lives and there is no solid solution yet, just more innovative ways to detect it.

What’s your favourite pastime?

Hiking. I found this an interesting pastime because it helps me clear my head while keeping fit.

What was your biggest challenge and win in 2020?

At Curacel, it was mostly, getting some of our fraud-based machine learning models to production

What would you achieve to label 2021 a very good year?

I would say exceeding my OKRs set for the year, both personally and professionally.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Innocent. Best wishes for the year ahead.

Thank you too!