Built by an engineer, for the long run.
ontopIT is a founder-led consultancy. The person who scopes your project is the person accountable for delivering it.
Kenny Akpan
CEO, Founder & Principal Architect · ontopIT
Kenny is a frontend engineer who specialises in modernising the platforms organisations depend on. He founded ontopIT to deliver that work directly, and to open the same career to people who rarely get the chance.
As a contractor, Kenny has worked across banking, advertising technology, car rental and tax software. At Citibank he worked in back-office technology with the futures team. At a Mitsubishi bank he built dashboards and support tools for mortgage-backed securities traders. He helped Mediaocean build a next-generation ad-tech platform for placing ads across streaming and social media, moved Enterprise Rent-A-Car's legacy system to a web-based frontend, and built out a React-based frontend for Tax.com's tax system.
For more than three years Kenny has consulted with EQengineered, a consultancy at the forefront of AI development that uses AI to modernise clients' technology stacks. His projects there span tax, pharmaceuticals and supermarket retail, and that work shapes how ontopIT approaches applied AI for its own clients.
Kenny has worked in Switzerland, Northern Ireland, England and Nigeria, and across the United States from Silicon Valley to Denver and New York. Everywhere he saw the same thing: a field full of interesting growth and opportunity, with too little diversity among the people building it. ontopIT Academy is his response, so that more people take part in designing tomorrow's world.
Kenny has also long used sport for social impact. He has been cycling for 15 years, and for each of the last five years he has joined a charity ride across Africa, riding for causes in Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal. Closer to home, he takes part in many local charity rides in New York City. In the Academy, sport is the bridge to young people, connected directly to the technology they learn, because he believes it drives greater engagement and helps participants stay the course.
How we approach the work.
Ship working software
Progress is measured in working features that people use, delivered in small, reviewed steps.
Leave teams stronger
Every engagement ends with documentation and knowledge transfer, so clients are not dependent on us.
Use AI where it earns its place
Practical, responsible AI that solves a defined problem, not technology for its own sake.
Invest in the next generation
Through the Academy, our engineers commit time to teaching and mentoring young New Yorkers.
Experience
Mostly frontend contract roles, usually modernising the platforms each organisation relies on.
- 10 years · present
CEO, Founder & Principal Architect · ontopIT
Consultancy delivery and development of ontopIT Academy.
- 3+ years · present
Consultant · EQengineered
AI-driven modernisation of client technology stacks across tax, pharmaceutical and supermarket retail projects.
- 2 years
Frontend developer (contract) · Mitsubishi bank
Dashboards and support tools for mortgage-backed securities traders.
- 3 years
Back-office technology (contract) · Citibank
Worked with the futures team.
- 3 years
Contract developer · Mediaocean
Next-generation ad-tech platform for ad placement across streaming and social media.
- 2 years
Contract developer · Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Modernised a legacy system into a web-based frontend.
- 2 years
Contract developer · Tax.com
Built out a React-based frontend for a tax system.
AI is lowering the barriers to entry. Nobody should be excluded from building a better tomorrow for themselves.
"With AI, people from less privileged backgrounds can catch up quickly, enter the industry and contribute to solutions that work globally and locally. But it is still essential to learn everything involved in the development process. That is the gap ontopIT Academy is here to bridge."
"Riding for charity across Africa and in New York showed me what sport can do for people. In the Academy, sport is how we reach young people and keep them engaged, and technology is where we take them next."
Riding for a cause.
Fifteen years on the bike. Five years of charity rides across Africa, for causes in Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus numerous charity rides in New York City.
In 2026 he joined Black Unity Bike Ride on a ride to Senegal, raising money for a local charity. The same spirit drives ontopIT Academy: sport that brings people together and opens doors.
Behind the scenes.
Working engineers, teaching and mentoring.
ontopIT engineers deliver client work and, subject to final staffing and schedules, will teach and mentor Academy participants.
Mentor profiles will be added here once team members have provided their biographies and agreed to be featured.