"For me, the program is an opportunity to meet like-minded people, to be challenged and gain valuable information." - Ope Thomas
Opeyemi "Ope" Thomas is a problem solver and a collaborator. His professional and life experiences provide an excellent base for him to lead teams of entrepreneurs and students. In addition to being an Entrepreneurship Fellow, Thomas also serves as president of the student-led UBalt Investment Society.
Thomas has prior experience as a stockbroker, where he dealt with the sale and management of investments traded in the market. He held the series 7 and 66. In addition to his investment experience, he has worked with various startup businesses as well as attempting to launch his own.
In 2014, Thomas collaborated with developers and designers to create a software solution to tackle overfishing in West Africa. The software was considered for implementation by the World Bank, with authorities in charge of fisheries in West Africa. In 2009, he was on the team that won second place at Startup Weekend Baltimore, a "hackathon" with more than a dozen prototype and concept presentations.
Thomas received the exceptional leadership award, in 2008, at the Diversity Leadership conference hosted by monster.com. During his second year at the Community College of Baltimore County, he developed a concept for a web based, on-demand tutoring platform. With only this concept in hand, he went to New York City to find partners and first customers. Thomas is fluent in two languages, including Yoruba, and is a novice spoeaker in French and Mandarin.
Along with other business ventures and experience performing in front of an audience, as a professional hip hop dancer, Opeyemi comes with a very diverse background and versatile set of skills.
What is he working on now?
Roadi, an app now nearing a formal launch, was created by Thomas and others in the Entrepreneurship Fellows program in 2014 to provide real-time street parking availability around a user’s schedule. Thomas met his first co-founders when he and his classmates presented research in the Inspired Discoveries competition at the University of Baltimore. The initial idea came from seeing a need for parking through research conducted for different class assignments and personal experience.
Learn more about Thomas's early success with Roadi.