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Olakunle Churchill – A Perfect Security Guru

Olakunle Churchill – A Perfect Security Guru

Olakunle Oladunni Churchill is an award winning and one of the nation’s highly sought active Security Experts. Through training and preventing critical incidents as an independent Security Expert, at the request of public officials and private entities, Churchill assists in shaping public and private safety standards.

Recognized as a pivotal leader in security change management strategies, Churchill has a proven record of success in implementing strategic programming software policy for both government entities and corporations. He is frequently sought by national media outlets to provide contributing insight on programme software for high tech security. Churchill is a dynamic, forward-thinking security consultant and vulnerability analyst.

Early life

Born in Lagos though parents hail from Abeokuta and Ondo, he grew up in Lagos, attended Akpata Memorial School and Nigeria Navy School, Abeokuta and later went to Abtec World-Wide where he did his HND – BTEC. After receiving a Computer Science bachelor’s degree from the “MET’ University, London, he also studied at the famous American University in Washington. (distance learning) and got his master’s degree in Software Engineering. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Westminster in London. The award was made by the Department of Electronics and Computer Science in recognition of Olakunle Churchill’s, ‘hard work and contribution to industry and public life’. Churchill is the founder and chief technology officer of Big Church Haven Managed Security Solution.

BIG CHURCH HAVEN experts, known and reputed for firewall maintenance, antivirus and intrusion detection systems software. They are experts in scanning multi national’s network for holes and test for speed on the latest vulnerabilities — and know whether or not software patches are available.They know what to do when the corporate servers get hacked, and they know how to stop the attack in its tracks. They also have the gumption to tell you when they cannot handle something, and they can recommend where to go for help.

Olakunle Churchill discusses the evolution of computing, misconceptions about Nigeria, and why having a computing background became a great asset. Through a series of professional achievements, starting with a two-year stint at coporate security firm in the mid 2000s, the Abeokuta native boy now finds himself in the enviable position of chief Executive officer of ‘BIG CHURCH’.

The business arm of Big Church Corporation, which was founded in 2010 and its headquarters in United Kingdom. Now a billion-dollar company, Big Church is a quiet giant, with subsidiaries and more than 500 employees; operations across the United States, United Kingdom of Great Britain, South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria, and interests in a host of industries; including hospitality, health care, oil and gas, mining, farming, transportation, entertainment and more.

What’s most unique about BIG CHURCH is that it’s not only an Abuja native-owned company, but its earnings also directly benefit the thousands of Nigerians – Olakunle Churchill, a philantropist per excellence.

People might ask how an Abeokuta man wound up and now own a global outfit?

I incorporated Big Church in 2010. Prior to that, I spent years working for multi-nationals, crisscrossing the globe. In my second year of travel, I realized that I was missing all the key milestones in my life. A friend I’d worked with had been calling me about coming to work home to establish a company, hence the birth of ‘BIG CHURCH’.

We had all the stereotypes—misconceptions about life in Nigeria. At first, I said no. But then we went to visit, in June 2010, I fell in love with the place I once grew as a “Tom boy”, Nigeria.

You started out on a career track in computing/accounting. What happened?

I grew up and raised by my grand-mother, she had always hoped for an accountant—my first toy was an abacus! Through high school, I took extra lessons in math and accounting to assure my success as a future accountant. My grand-mother’s proudest moment was the day I was accepted into the clerkship program at “Capgemini UK”. For the next two years, I progressed in the programme audit world until my heart was stolen by computing. When I was offered a position at IBM as a business reengineering process specialist, my granny warned that computers were just a fad and that the bubble was bound to burst. I never looked back.

How has your accounting background helped you in tackling IT issues?

It has been an asset for me, as I look at all operations we perform within IT relative to their ability to positively impact the bottom line. I also understand the value of time and project management, with respect to their impact on costs. I maintain very disciplined budgetary controls within our teams and encourage our IT professionals to view operations from a business-centric point of view.

What does a typical day look like for you?

In a corporation with varied businesses, there are no typical days. I may start a morning with a discussion about federal contracting and new infrastructure to support a billion-dollar consolidation of service companies. Noon may be a call with our operations team in Australia, and mid- to late afternoon may be consumed with planning for an enterprise performance-management system with potentially 10,000 users. The day may close out with our hospitality division discussing broadband accesses.

How does being an employee-owned company work out for BIG CHURCH?

 Is it problematic, or is it more successful because the employees have a stake in the business’s success?

BIG CHURCH is a shareholder-owned company that happens to employ some of its shareholders. That’s what differentiates us from other employee-owned businesses. Our shareholder employees are held equally accountable for delivering results by the friends and families who support them in their careers at BIG CHURCH.

The broader BIG CHURCH community functions like one very large and communicative family, with its own culture and natural way of managing through crises.

What do you like best about your job?

I enjoy the fact that no one day is like the other; the diversity of the corporation brings about many exciting challenges and unique solutions. I’m also fortunate to work with an outstanding team of professionals. In many cases, my role is simply to create the conditions in which their sense of innovation and creative genius can flourish.

Olakunle Oladunni Churchill is a selfless young hamsome hardworking man, at leisure, he likes to party hard, but luckily and happily married to Tonto Dikeh, Nollywood actress, singer/songwriter, from Rivers State and is of the famous Ikwerre tribe.

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