As head of IT Business at Copy Cat Group, a 40-year-old Kenyan technology firm, Nadeem has for the last eight years steered the company from a traditional systems integrator into one of Africa’s most sophisticated technology services providers, delivering across infrastructure, cybersecurity, connectivity, AI, and application development.
His path to technology wasn’t definitive. He studied History and Economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. before returning home to co-found a software infrastructure start-up.
“Technology has always been something I’m passionate about,” he says. “And history gave me perspective.”
As an IT business leader, he believes it is his duty to tell apart hype and perspective, especially in the technology world where everything is floated as a game-changer and turnkey. One of his proudest moments: leading one of the continent’s largest AI projects — 70 edge data centres capturing and analysing radio and television content using speech-to-text, translation, and machine-learning models.
“I came in with a very clear mandate,” he says. “To shift Copy Cat from one-time, project-based engagements into continuous value partnerships with our customers — and to move us from selling boxes and servers to delivering 360-degree technology solutions.”
"My only goal is to create an environment where other people can succeed."
Working in a family business chaired by his father is a dynamic that adds both pressure and pride on his shoulders — recognising that the company is older than he is pushes him to work a little harder, if for nothing else, its legacy.
“You’re not just upholding a brand,” he adds. “You’re upholding your father’s values — the ethics and morals that built this business. Family keeps me grounded in what’s truly important.”
Inside the company, he has championed radical transparency — open pay bands, visible career paths, and meritocracy.
“My only goal,” he says, “is to create an environment where other people can succeed.”
He says his 11-year-old boy is “my greatest anchor.”
–Ndugu Abisai