Azeez Razaq Adewale, a 2008 graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has received an award for his contributions to computing education, research, innovation and professional practice, as his company, Hexaguard Limited, joined FUTA’s first international computing conference as an official partner.

Adewale studied Fisheries and Wildlife Management at FUTA from 2003 to 2008. He is now the founder and chief executive of Hexaguard Limited, a cybersecurity and technology company with offices in Lagos and Gothenburg, Sweden.

The award was presented by the School of Computing’s Annual Lecture Committee during FUTA’s 2nd Annual Lecture and 1st International Conference on Emerging Computing Applications and Technologies, held on 15-16 July 2026 at the Obafemi Awolowo Auditorium.

His path from a B.Tech in Agricultural Technology at FUTA to the leadership of an international cybersecurity firm is an unusual one. After graduating in 2008, Adewale went on to earn a BSc in Communication Technology from the National Open University of Nigeria. He then built a career that took him through corporate security roles in Lagos and Nairobi, work with a fintech platform in Mexico, and later the automotive technology sector in Sweden, where he served as Senior Cybersecurity Consultant for Zeekr Technology Europe, the European engineering arm of Geely Group’s premium electric vehicle brand.

Adewale now holds two master’s degrees, including an MSc in Information Security and Digital Forensics from the University of East London. His professional credentials include CISSP, C|CISO, CCSP, PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor, and the ISO/SAE 21434 Lead Auditor certification, which governs the security of connected and autonomous road vehicles.

He is also a named member of the EC-Council ECIH Scheme Committee and the ISC2 CISSP Content Advisory Panel, placing him among the professionals who help shape global cybersecurity training and certification standards.

Beyond the individual award, the conference flyer lists Hexaguard Limited as one of five official institutional partners of FUTA’s first international computing conference. The other partners are RiseNetworks, PrunEdge, Vesti, and Future Academy Africa.

The conference theme, “From Artificial Intelligence Consumers to Creators: Preparing African Universities for the Global Intelligence Economy through Computing Education, Research and Industry Collaboration,” reflects the kind of work Adewale says he has pursued: building technology products on the continent, for the continent, to international standards. The partnership also points to the growing role of industry collaboration in computing education, where universities are increasingly looking to firms that can connect classroom training with real-world security, compliance and product development needs.

Hexaguard’s flagship product, CybaPulse, is an all-in-one compliance and risk management platform that supports 41 international frameworks, including ISO 27001, PCI DSS, GDPR, NIS2, DORA and Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). The platform is designed for African and emerging-market enterprises, which have often been priced out of enterprise GRC tools available to companies in Europe and North America.

The company’s second product, Veriphye, is an AI-powered device verification and ownership protection platform designed to tackle mobile device theft and fraud in the West African market. At its December 2025 launch, The Guardian Nigeria described Veriphye as a critical layer of national digital safety infrastructure. Adewale said that recognition reinforced his belief that the most important problems to solve are often the ones closest to home.

“The issues I’ve spent my career addressing, compliance gaps in Nigerian financial institutions, device fraud in our informal economy, the absence of affordable security infrastructure for African enterprises, these are not niche problems,” Adewale said. “They are foundational. And they can only be properly addressed by people who understand them from the inside.”

Adewale is currently preparing to expand Hexaguard’s operations into the United Kingdom, where CybaPulse is being positioned for the regulated financial services, public sector and government technology contractor markets. That next phase may also matter for how Nigerian-built products are received in more regulated international markets, where standards, assurance and documentation are often as important as product features.

He said the FUTA award and conference partnership form part of a larger story about what Nigerian technical talent, built locally and tested globally, can contribute to the world.