Temie Giwa-Tubosun’s life reads like a symphony composed for change—a Nigerian-American visionary who transformed personal crisis into systemic innovation within healthcare.
As the founder and CEO of LifeBank, she turned logistics, data, and empathy into a life-saving supply chain engine, delivering blood, oxygen, and medical essentials across Nigeria with urgency and dignity.
Temie was born in Ila Orangun, Osun State, in December 1985—into a family of educators whose values instilled in her curiosity and purpose from an early age.
At age 15, she relocated to the U.S., attended Osseo Senior High in Minnesota, then earned her BA in Political Science from Minnesota State University Moorhead (2007), followed by a graduate degree at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (2010) .
Her early career spanned global health institutions—DFID, WHO, UNDP’s Millennium Villages, and Global Health Corps—seeding her fascination with systems that serve the vulnerable .
A critical turning point arrived in 2014. While giving birth in the U.S., Temie suffered severe hemorrhage.
Reflecting on what her survival represented, she vowed to solve healthcare’s fatal gaps—particularly around blood access—for the many Nigerian mothers who wouldn’t survive under similar conditions .
In response, she launched the One Percent Project in 2012—an NGO aimed at increasing voluntary blood donations and awareness.
By 2016, it evolved into LifeBank, a tech-driven logistics company designed to operate like an “Amazon for blood,” sourcing and delivering essential medical supplies with speed and accuracy .
LifeBank’s logistical prowess is formidable: delivery to hospitals within 55 minutes; over 300 pints of blood per month supplied to more than 170 hospitals; over 2,000 pints delivered by early 2017—and today, that number continues to grow .
During crises—most notably the COVID-19 pandemic—Temie and team pivoted deftly.
They orchestrated home-based PCR testing via “HomeKits,” drove test sample logistics, and distributed medical oxygen. Collectively, they conducted tens of thousands of tests—representing approximately 5% of Nigeria’s total at one point—and supplied critical pandemic relief .
Recognition of her impact has been both broad and profound.
In 2014, she was the youngest Nigerian listed among BBC’s 100 Women changing the world.
In 2019 she won Jack Ma’s African Business Hero Award, in 2020 the Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader, and more recently, the Cartier Impact Award in the “Improving Lives” category .
A profile in the Next Einstein Forum captures her philosophy: LifeBank isn’t just about tech—it’s about “science and state-of-the-art technology” forging equitable access to blood, oxygen, and vaccines.
The company emphasizes clinical research—partnering with Johnson & Johnson and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research to reduce transfusion-transmissible infections and ensure blood safety .
What defines Temie’s leadership is not only her innovations—but her insistence on evidence-backed solutions.
She urges innovators to validate claims through research and rigorous design, believing that longevity in healthcare depends on operational excellence and trust .
Her journey—from a rural upbringing to global health boardrooms to surviving her own near-death moment—speaks volumes. She builds not for headlines, but for life itself.
Image Credit: allAfrica.com
