Our Team
Dawud Yakubu
Dawud is a Co-Founder and Lead Researcher at The Volta Institute for Innovation Ecosystems, where he leads research strategy, operational framework development, and the Institute's open-access research repository.
Prior to co-founding the Institute, he served as an operations leader within a large-scale robotics-enabled fulfillment network, following earlier roles directing B2B commercial strategy and brand management across West Africa's energy and telecommunications sectors.
He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Arizona State University, a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in International Marketing from Lund University, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Ghana.
Note: Serves the Institute in a voluntary, uncompensated research and framework development capacity.
Jared Offei Lartey
Jared serves as Chief Research Officer at The Volta Institute for Innovation Ecosystems, where he leads and contributes to research on innovation, markets, and the development of transformative policy frameworks.
He has held research and academic positions across Europe and West Africa, including at BI Norwegian Business School, Lund University, and the Graduate School of Management in Côte d’Ivoire. He holds a PhD in Marketing from BI Norwegian Business School, an MSc in Service Management from Lund University in Sweden, and an MPhil in Marketing from the University of Ghana Business School.
His research and professional expertise span innovation legitimation, innovation consumption, and how innovation ecosystems evolve.
Olaoluwa Kolawole
Ola is a Co-Founder and Treasurer at The Volta Institute, where he leads financial governance, capital allocation strategy, and organizational operating model design.
He brings a decade of corporate strategy, deal advisory, and financial management experience across healthcare, technology, financial services, and telecommunications. He currently serves as a Director in Deal Management at EY-Parthenon, advising executives on multi-billion-dollar corporate transformations, operating model integrations, and divestitures. Prior to his work in strategic advisory, he led commercial business development and retail banking strategy at Access Bank PLC.
He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Physics from Covenant University.