Pelumi Kolade has a knack for business. As a civil engineering undergraduate in his home country of Nigeria, Kolade and a friend launched a greeting card business during a holiday break. Later, as part of the Unilever Africa Idea Trophy competition, he worked for a year on strategies to change customer behavior through brand activation. He won Best Presenter.
“The competition landed me my first internship with Unilever and set me on the business path,” he said.
After his internship, Unilever hired Kolade to develop marketing campaigns and manage the digital presence of major brands like Axe and Dove. He went on to serve as brand manager at candy company Cadbury as well as health, hygiene, and nutrition goods producer Reckitt Benckiser Group. With each role, Kolade honed his skills and discovered what really excited him about business.
“I always thought of a business as something that simply made a profit,” he said. “But as a brand manager, I learned that a company can change the world and have a deeper impact on people’s lives.”
Kolade executed a marketing campaign that encouraged better handwashing habits to prevent the spread of illness-causing germs in Nigeria. Another branding project aimed to empower and uplift women who had been historically marginalized.
“I found that a business can have a purpose beyond just making money,” he said.
Kolade won several honors over a six-year period, including Brand of the Year and Best Rebrand of the Year at the 2022 Nigerian Marketing Awards, and was named a Top 35 Under 35 Marketing Professional at the 2022 Brandcom Awards, one of Nigeria’s most prestigious industry recognitions.
Though his natural talent brought success, Kolade wanted to pursue an MBA.
“I didn’t have any formal business education,” he said. “I wanted to understand the theories and academic principles driving my work.”
The MBA program at Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business jumped to Kolade’s top choice because the curriculum centers on real-world business scenarios, and the faculty members boast a diverse range of industry and academic backgrounds. He also saw a major benefit of being in Atlanta, where more than 330 international businesses, 31 of them Fortune 500 firms, are headquartered.
The program has exposed Kolade to concepts that elevate the on-the-ground experience he gained over the years. In his Marketing Management course, he completed marketing simulations that helped him understand how brand strategies can come to life across a wide swath of industries. He also tackled a complex business issue as part of a case competition.
Later this year, Kolade will join the 2024 Panthers in the Valley cohort for an immersive trip to one of the world’s most innovative business environments: Silicon Valley.
Kolade currently is a product management intern with global energy technology leader Cummins. He has been tasked with understanding and creating revenue and cost models that align with the company’s push toward a net zero emissions world. Through this work, Kolade combines his technical engineering education, passion for branding, and newly learned business acumen, all while staying true to his principles of working with a company that strives to make the world a better place.
“Building strong ties between industry and academia has been fantastic,” he said. “I look forward to pursuing the opportunities this experience grants me.”