T-Mobile Un-Carrier All-Star Spotlight: Ronke Ekwensi

Ronke Ekwensi

T-Mobile’s Vice President and Chief Data Officer

With over 25 years of experience, Ronke Ekwensi is a true champion when it comes to driving business outcomes through data strategy. She says her career journey is far from being a straight line, acquiring expertise across several fields before joining the Un-carrier nearly four years ago as VP and Chief Data Officer. After starting out in IT and moving onto information management where she focused on policy and privacy issues, Ronke eventually dove headfirst into the world of big data. She’s worked her magic across various industries too, making waves in healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, electrical power, technology, consumer electronics and management consulting.

"Ambition is a good thing to have, and I value my inventory of substantive skillsets," she says. "I run my own race and I have a high bar set to be the best version of myself. I remember when I made VP at a previous company and some people asked if I was surprised. No! I had been working toward that for a year. At some point, you have to know your worth and speak up for yourself."

After a solid decade of immersing herself in information governance, Ronke made a strategic move to ramp up her commitment to continuous learning. She went back to school at MIT to take a course on big data, choosing to pivot from lofty titles to focus on a field she believed could genuinely make a difference in our world.

"I believe in the transformative power of data, and I’m fascinated by the way it will affect not only business but humanity altogether," she says. "We have the tools now with generative AI and large language models to make it happen. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds."