He is the executive director of Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF) and the founder/CEO of Cable Newspaper Ltd, Lagos, publishers of TheCable online newspaper (www.thecable.ng). He was editor of Nigeria’s influential newspaper, THISDAY, from 2007-2012. He currently writes a well respected weekly column for THISDAY. Kolawole earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos in 1992, and a Master’s degree in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, as a British Chevening Scholar in 2006.
Kolawole was named among Africa’s next generation of leaders by The Banker, a publication of Financial Times of London, in 2009. He was Mo Ibrahim Fellow on the Governance for Development in Africa Initiative at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2010. In March 2012, he was named Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. As a YGL, he has attended courses on leadership at the Yale University (2013) and at the Kennedy School, Harvard University (2014), both in the United States.