Babajide Agunbiade: UI’s Gift To The World | Jamil Eniola

By Ibrahim Agunbiade

Among many eloquent personalities who have brought sunshine and laughter to humanity is Dr. (Engr.) Babajide Ademola Agunbiade, COREN, MNSE, FIISE, MBA, PhD.

Dr. Jide Agunbiade, as he is fondly called, is a double majors graduate of the University of Ibadan with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Industrial & Production Engineering.

He acquired further education at some of the world’s prestigious institutions, and has, over the past twenty years, been involved in the Oil & Gas industry.

 Dr. Agunbiade is a Businessman, Investor, Energy Consultant, and has attended several Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops all over the globe. He is currently a director at National Oilwell Varco (NOV); an American multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas, and better known as a leading worldwide provider of equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The company conducts operations in more than 600 locations across six continents.

Dr. Agunbiade gained global acclaim when he worked at General Electric (GE) as Principal Engineer for the $4 billion Duke Energy Edwardsport IGCC (Integrated Gasification in Combined Cycle) project. He was the Lead Engineer in the GE Gasification Business Unit that built the first-ever IGCC plant in Edwardsport, Indiana. The gasification process involves converting coal and other carbon-based feedstock with carbon capture and sequestration into a combustible syngas that is used in a combustion turbine to generate electricity.

He started his Oil and Gas career as Subsea Engineer at Texaco Oversea Houston. He has completed over $1 billion worth of Deepwater projects as Director of the NOV Subsea Production System Group.

Agunbiade is the Founder/President of the Jide Agunbiade Foundation, with the objectives of empowering the needy with primary healthcare, access to basic education and community development. The Foundation has donated and completed several projects around the world, especially in his home town of Fiditi, Oyo State.
Apart from his philanthropic activities in Nigeria and the USA, Dr. Agunbiade has also been a veritable source of hope and succour to the needy in his Alma mater, the University of Ibadan; he donated £6,000 to the Institution’s Alumni Trust Fund, amongst other supports. He is among the first diaspora alumnus to make such a large donation. This was at the 70th anniversary of the Premier University.

A thoroughly educated individual, Dr. Agunbiade has an MBA in Business Management from the American Intercontinental University, Houston, Texas. He simultaneously undertook two Ph.D. degree programmes; a Doctorate in Urban Planning & Environmental Policy from the Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas and a Doctorate in Leadership and Business from the Higher Place Christian University, Atlanta, Georgia; quite a rare and outstanding feat.

Dr. Agunbiade was among the stakeholders invited by the President of Mozambique to advise the country on their newly discovered sizeable offshore gas reserves in 2014. He was also a prominent guest speaker at the Offshore Technolgy Conference (OTC) Houston, African Oilweek, and Sub-Saharan African International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference.

Dr. Agunbiade is married to Mrs. Funke Agunbiade, CEO of Sifax Shipping and Logistics in Houston, a subsidiary of the Sifax group where they are co-owners of the Houston operations.

He is a devoted father to his magnificent Children, a caring husband to his intelligent, sophisticated, and stylish wife and a reliable, trustworthy, and dependable son and friend to the foremost royal father in Nigeria, His Imperial Majesty Alaafin Of Oyo Lamidi Adeyemi. He is highly connected to movers and shakers of the society including the governor of Oyo State, His Excellency, Seyi Makinde, Executive Governor of Oyo State.

At the moment, the ebullient philanthropist, is undertaking a gigantic project to better the existence of humanity. With his National Oilwell Varco, Agunbiade is putting up flexible pipeline projects across Ghana, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Angola.

He loves playing Golf and is a committed supporter of Chelsea FC.

Agunbiade is truly a gift to this generation and a proud product of the University of Ibadan.