(En français)

Eguono Onoyovwi Omotayo is a visionary leader who inspires others with her passion and commitment to building inclusive and purpose-driven teams. A native of Southern Nigeria, Eguono holds both engineering and business degrees, and applies her expertise as Director of Product, Enterprise CRM at CIBC. As a Black woman in STEM, she is keenly aware of the power of representation and is a strong promoter of diverse talent, both at CIBC and in the broader corporate community. In addition to her responsibilities running Enterprise CRM, one of the largest and most high-profile programs at CIBC, Eguono serves as a host, judge, or speaker at various events including Mental Health Awareness and Career Sponsorship events by CIBC’s Women’s Network, BrainStem Alliance’s Careers in STEM conference, Elevate’s Talent Showcase, CAUFP’s Youth Summit, and the My Money My Future Challenge by the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education. She has also served as a mentor in CIBC’s Student Thought Forum; the founder of New Culture, a youth mentorship organization; a volunteer mentor for RISE, an organization that helps young people launch their own businesses; and a volunteer career mentor for RYFC, an organization focused on wholesome youth mentorship. In 2018 she was a featured speaker at Move the Dial Global Summit, which promotes diversity and inclusion. Eguono is a trailblazer on the rise.

How She Made Change

Eguono has always been committed to creating a sense of belonging wherever she works. A strong promoter of diverse talent, she has acted as a mentor to countless students and young professionals who have taken co-op positions on her team, encouraging them to bring their whole selves to work every day. Many of these mentees are now full-time CIBC employees and ambassadors for diversity and inclusion across the bank.

As a vocal supporter for the advancement of women, Eguono has played a major role in ensuring that the teams she leads are gender equal. For example, while leading the pilot Skunkworks at CIBC, an initiative to incubate new ideas for the bank, she insisted that the group comprise at least 50% women. Her vision for Skunkworks has inspired other teams to emulate this model and has advanced a collaborative culture at CIBC.

Eguono is able to effectively build innovative and purpose-driven teams by clearly defining and articulating her team’s vision. She develops creative solutions using ideation and innovation forums, which draw on a diversity of ideas and backgrounds to create a final product.

Inclusive Leadership

Known for her emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills, Eguono is an inclusive leader who brings courage, humility, and open-mindedness to work every day. She is not afraid to tackle tough topics, question assumptions or challenge the status quo to ensure that all voices are heard.

Eguono also demonstrates ownership and accountability, key behaviours of inclusive leadership, setting goals for a project but also guiding team members to set their own measurable objectives. She has been repeatedly recognized by senior leadership for her ability to accomplish goals in high-pressure circumstances and with extremely tight deadlines.

About Eguono Onoyovwi Omotayo

Eguono Onoyovwi Omotayo is a problem solver and change agent with 11 years of experience in digital transformation, application development, and product management. As Director of Product, Enterprise CRM at CIBC, she leads the product delivery of a large enterprise Salesforce platform, managing a team of product owners. She holds a BE from McGill University in Montreal and an MBA from Queen’s University in Kingston.