Time Warner executive
cashing in on special lottery
By Felix Hoover
For Your News Columbus
Sept. 30. 2010
The lottery that Oduwole
“Wally” Bakare won 15 years ago came with no option for an enormous
lump-sum payment and with no guaranteed yearly payout, just a chance to
live out a dream.
Thanks to that special
lottery, though, Bakare. finds himself living a modified dream as a vice
president and general manager for Times Warner Cable Mid-Ohio.
In his office at headquarters
on Olentangy River Road, he gestures to a motivational poster that he
hopes the 900 workers under his supervision buy into. He pulls out his
cell phone and points to the private numbers of many of the city’s most
prominent leaders, folks who understand his ability and desire to better
the community.
“Service is my raison d’etre,”
said Bakare, who had served said.
Even though he described
himself as “spiritual, not religious,” he also said, “I know that God has
a plan for my life.”
Others have noticed how he’s
carrying out that plan. including CableFAX Magazine, which in 2009 named
him one of the “Most Influential Minorities in Cable,” and Business First,
which this year recognized his professional and civic involvement by
naming him as one of its 40 under 40. He’s 39.
Bakare takes pride in being
one of the highest ranking African-Americans in his industry, and he
openly talks about how his position allows him to experience the arts
locally and elsewhere.
His roots are in Lagos,
Nigeria, where he grew up in a middle-class family. He traveled a lot with
his father, who was an entrepreneur.
In 1993, a mentor handed
Bakare a form that would change his life, an application for a immigration
visa to this country. Of the million applicants, 55,000 were chosen in
that special lottery.
“I was blessed to be one that
was picked,” Bakare said. “I came as a legal immigrant, which allowed me
to start looking for a job immediately.”
Bakare saw snow for the first
time the winter he came to the States, which wasn’t the only surprise for
someone who came to this country with only $100 to his name.
How he got where he is
reflects commitment, hard work and determination to surmount obstacles.
The means might not resemble his childhood vision, but the results show
significant elements of the original dream.
That vision called for him to
attend college in the United States. That didn‘t happen when he was an
undergrad; he earned his bachelor’s from Lagos State University and a
master’s from the University of Lagos.
Eventually, however, he would
add a graduate degree from the University of Maryland and would continue
to upgrade his vita with training and studies offered in connection with
his current job.
Bakare was married when he
came to this country in 1995.
“We came to study youth
ministries,” he said. “We had been involved with children’s ministries in
Nigeria.”
The idea was to set up
libraries and safe places where teens could play video games.
Bakare is no longer married,
and he didn’t set up arcades and libraries, but he’s involved with helping
young people as the board vice president for Starr Commonwealth Columbus
(formerly the Hannah Neil Center), as a mentor with the Oakmont Elementary
School Young Gents Club of Columbus, and as a volunteer with Junior
Achievement of Central Ohio and with The Ohio State University’s Todd A.
Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male. He also is a
volunteer coach with The Vineyard Community Center Career Clinic in
Westerville.
As a lottery selection Bakare
was legally permitted to seek work as soon as he arrived in this country.
With two years experience back home in computer science and a master’s
degree in international law, he figured he’d pick up where he left off as
soon as he arrived in the States.
He spoke English, but with an
accent that made it difficult for many people in this country to
understand him, he said.
The dream would be deferred.
To make ends meet he passed out fliers in Baltimore and sold vacuum
cleaners before a temp service referred him to Nextel, where he became an
office clerk.
“I filed invoices for nine
months,” Bakare said. “That was my entry to telecommunication. I worked my
way up.”
In 2006, he began working for
Time Warner in Los Angeles as vice president and general manager of voice
services. While there he led the digital phone launch team in the L.A.
region, which resulted in more than 300 percent subscriber growth
throughout the TW Cable/Comcast/Adelphia integration.
Experience Columbus must not
have reached him before his move here in 2008 as vice president and
general manager for Time Warner’s Southeast Ohio area. His expectations
for the city were lower than an ant under a limbo bar, but he quickly
learned it has much to offer, especially in the arts.
He recently saw the touring
production of Wicked and attends all performances of BalletMet.
In his current position since
May 2009 Bakare has been responsibile for field operations, which means
that he’s the boss of the techs who come to homes in central, northern and
southeastern Ohio. He‘s also in charges of the front desk workers who
check in equipment that customers return.
“I’m responsible for what
makes the cable company a cable company,” Bakare said.
The way he carries out those
responsibilities suggests that the cable company has hit the lottery, too.
