Tolu Akindunni is a Venture Accelerator and Social Entrepreneur with 20 years of experience driving transformative change across complex global business environments. Her expertise spans digital transformation, emerging technologies, and strategic innovation, with a career spanning four continents. Tolu has held pioneering roles with global brands such as Saint-Gobain, Emirates Airlines, and the Rail Delivery Group (UK), fostering growth, agility, and customer-centric excellence.

Currently, Tolu is a key member of Saint-Gobain’s Central Innovation Team, where she reshapes the innovation landscape by driving capability building and strategic initiatives that accelerate revenue growth. As a trusted business partner, she is committed to cultivating a resilient culture and leveraging innovative business and service models to fuel success.

The Pop in Your Job (What moves you? Why do you love your job?)

What excites me most about my job is the opportunity to be at the forefront of pioneering transformation on an industrial scale. At Saint-Gobain, I’m deeply involved in shaping initiatives that will revolutionize markets for years to come, and I’m able to see these strategies deliver tangible results. I enjoy connecting the dots across different business units, influencing culture, and driving sustainable growth.

The dynamic nature of my role keeps me energized—I might be solving a problem in the U.S. one minute, and addressing a new challenge in Europe the next. I work alongside incredibly intelligent and experienced professionals, from PhDs to seasoned business leaders, ensuring there’s never a dull moment.

Beyond the business side, I’m driven by the chance to empower underrepresented communities. Helping them unlock opportunities with the right systems and structures is where the real pop in my work comes from, as it brings together multiple aspects of my career to serve the community.

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility and industrial markets. Developed through a continuous innovation process, our integrated solutions provide sustainability and performance in daily life, addressing the renovation of public and private buildings, light construction and the decarbonization of construction and industry. In this way, we contribute to reducing carbon emissions, leveraging resource efficiency and increasing circularity. Saint-Gobain believes in progress and seeks to be a game-changer that improves individual and collective health and wellness. We are convinced that the solutions that meet everyone’s essential needs and allow us to live better together, without jeopardizing future generations, are still to be invented.