As President and CEO, Jimmy Akintonde leads the team of construction professionals, consultants and business partners that successfully operate Ujamaa Construction Inc. (UJAMAA), a fast- growing general contracting and construction management firm headquartered in Chicago, Il. and with a regional office in Atlanta, Georgia. Since the firm’s inception in 2002, he has diversified the business operations to serve the healthcare, institutional, retail, commercial and multi-family construction markets. Jimmy’s vision for UJAMAA is to provide exceptional construction services in a socially responsible manner. This community-based, client-focused approach has earned the firm the respect, trust and business from clients in varying markets across the Midwest. Currently, more than two-thirds of the firm’s business is attributed to repeat clients. He grew Ujamaa from a single employee to 90 people with over eighty-million dollars in collective revenue in 2020. The company is currently part of the Lakeside Alliance, builders of the Barrack Obama Presidential Library.

Jimmy earned a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology and has completed numerous Masters of Business Administration courses at Purdue University. He graduated from the Entrepreneurship Center program at Purdue University Calumet and is a member of the inaugural NextOne entrepreneurial program with the Chicago Urban League and Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School. He also successfully completed the Executive Education program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is a past Chair of the Builders Association, the Illinois Chapter of the Association of General Contractors, whose membership includes the premier General Contractors of the Chicagoland area.

Jimmy has over 28 years of industry experience and his accomplishments have been recognized with several distinguished community and professional awards. He credits family for his successes and keeping him grounded. He is a Board of Trustee member at Illinois Technology (IIT, 2019), he served Governor JB Pritzker on the Restoring Illinois Infrastructure transition committee in 2018/19, the City of Chicago Board of Appeals (Member). In 2019, Ujamaa was named by the national Association of General Contractors (AGC) as the “Diverse Business of the Year Award”, and in the same year named “Minority Supplier of the Year – Class IV” by the Chicago Minority Supplier Council, the highest award giving to a diverse supplier. Under his leadership and direction, UJAMAA will continue the efforts in “rebuilding our community one block at a time.”