Uyi Stewart

Uyi is Vice President, Inclusive Innovation & Analytics for the Center of Inclusive Growth. In this role, Uyi is responsible for developing and executing a portfolio of initiatives and partnerships to ensure recent technologies, including AI and data innovation, enable inclusive growth.

Uyi brings over 25 years of experience in inclusive innovation, AI, and digital transformation projects in commercial and non-profit sectors in the USA, India, Europe, LAC and Africa. Earlier in his career, Uyi was Director of Strategy, Data, and Analytics for Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he centralized the use of data and AI to combat disease, poverty, and inequality. He was also IBM’s first Chief Scientist & co-founder of the first commercial AI Lab in Africa, focused on using AI for social & business impact. He has deployed over 500 data and AI solutions that have been utilized by more than 1 million users globally. He holds 17 patents and has authored 70 publications on AI-driven systems, natural language processing (NLP), and speech recognition.

Most recently, Uyi served as Chief Data and Technology Officer of data.org, where the Center is a founding funder and partner. At data.org, Uyi led the programmatic strategy to successfully deliver multi-year global programs in digital public goods and capacity building, including developing the ecosystem for interdisciplinary data science and AI curriculum that has now trained ~100,000 learners.

As a passionate global champion for inclusive innovation, Uyi has received numerous accolades for his work in inclusive innovation, including the 2014 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution and he was recently featured in Devex Global Voices 2024 as an AI Thought Leader, championing linguistic diversity in AI as a pathway to digital empowerment and inclusive growth.

Uyi holds a PhD in Generative Linguistics Theory from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, an MPhil in Linguistics from Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, and a BA (Summa Cum Laude) in Linguistics, and Valedictorian, University of Benin, Nigeria.