A Journey Across Continents to Executive Agile Leadership

When Stella Ihenacho set out on her professional journey, she couldn't have foreseen that her path would lead her across continents, through industries, and into the heart of the agile movement. What began as an early ambition to work in security and federal law enforcement transformed into a remarkable story of agile leadership. This is not just a story of personal success; it's a blueprint for turning challenges into opportunities, transforming industries, and empowering communities at scale.

An agile leader's journey

Stella was born and raised in Nigeria. She earned her first degree in biochemistry before going on to complete a Master's of Business Administration in the United Kingdom. With an interest in security and criminal justice, she was driven by an early dream of starting her own security firm after realizing she couldn't join the FBI—one of her first ambitions—because she wasn't a U.S. citizen. "I wanted to have my own business. That was one of the reasons for getting an MBA," she said.

After earning her MBA, she got a job as a project coordinator at a private university in London. "Looking back, I realize that everything I've done has had some element of project management."

In this early role, she dove right into working with technical teams despite not having a technical background. She also worked in a division within the university that assisted students from Africa who wanted to study in the UK, just like Stella had.

Later, she moved to the United States. When it came to securing a job in the U.S. at her level of expertise and experience, it was, in her words, "a whole different ball game."

Her move to the country came with unexpected challenges: despite esteemed degrees and extensive work experience, she faced systemic barriers. In many ways, her qualifications were undervalued, her accent became a perceived obstacle, and she had to navigate misinformation about what jobs were available to her (some people told her she would have to start at the bottom despite her experience). 

"I had all that working against me, honestly. But I was really dogged in my approach. I felt like: I have these degrees, I have this experience, what can I do?" She didn’t give up or settle for "starting over" in unrelated jobs. She was newly married, trying to start a family, and ready to roll up her sleeves and make her way in a career she was passionate about. 

"Agile was meant for someone like me"

And just like that, an opportunity presented itself.

A pivotal moment came when Stella volunteered with a fintech startup. "Through the power of community, I was connected with someone who had a startup company, and she was looking for someone who wanted to volunteer." So Stella said yes to the opportunity. "There's power in volunteering. There's power in being able to give back, but also power in saying yes even if you're not being paid."

Far from a simple side project, this experience catapulted her into the agile space, a world she describes as an immediate and natural fit. She quickly mastered agile's core principles, from cross-functional collaboration to adaptive leadership, recognizing them as not only professional tools but as intrinsic to her own leadership style. This was not a career detour; this was a new executive track.

Stella describes encountering agile as "love at first sight." She recalls how agile's values (like courage, respect, and openness) resonated deeply with her, not just as professional practices but as personal values. 

"It was love at first sight," Stella said. 

Soon, she envisioned herself organizing user acceptance testing, daily stand-ups, refinement, and other agile team practices. She wanted to learn more and took it upon herself to obtain her Certified ScrumMaster® certification, as she was interested in exploring agility and scrum. 

"The way agile practices are structured is the way I operate," Stella recalls thinking at the time. "The collaboration part of it, the cross-functionality part of it—the way we want teams to be self-organized and to have the skills to evolve," it all stood out to Stella.

"I truly think agile was meant for me."

Accelerating her success: Certification and executive leadership

Stella secured her CSM certification and deepened her expertise. She advanced through influential positions, including roles as a project manager, scrum master, and agile coach. Today, she leads enterprise-level agile transformation at Red Hat—an IBM subsidiary that provides open source software products. Her leadership has helped reduce time-to-market, improve team performance metrics, and enable scalable agile adoption across multi-functional teams.

Stella also serves as the agile faculty lead at NSTAR Technologies, a top Atlanta technology institute, shaping the next generation of agile professionals.

As someone with direct experience in enterprise-level agility, Stella knows agile is far from dead or outdated.

"Agile is the norm," she said. "We've evolved from where it was the nice thing to do, or the trendy thing to do, to where now, for you to be sustainable in today's way of work, agility has to be a part of your DNA." In a world shaped by rapid technological advancement and shifting customer expectations, Stella asserts that agility is the operating system of modern, resilient enterprises.

"Agile organizations need to think about: How are we working together? How are we putting the customer front of mind? How are we interacting as individuals over processes and tools?" She says agile is a culture shift and a culture change. "And one thing about culture change is that there's no end to it. It's the same thing with agile. It's a continuous journey."

Executive insights: Stella's leadership philosophy

Stella's advice to emerging agile leaders is grounded in executive wisdom: prioritize people, elevate voices, and lead transformation with intentionality. "Always put the people first," she said, "and the people could be people in your team or the stakeholders or the customers, because when you put them first, you really hear what they're saying and you also crowdsource their insight and their information."

When agile leaders prioritize the voice of the people, they effectively crowdsource next steps and creative solutions to problems and challenges an organization may face, upping the odds of a successful and sustainable path forward.

Championing the goals of African immigrants and entrepreneurs

Beyond corporate leadership, Stella is deeply committed to community transformation. As the Chief Operating Officer of the African Immigrant Collective, she drives initiatives that equip African immigrants in the diaspora with the tools, strategies, and connections to excel in their careers and ventures. 

The non-profit is expanding its reach, building strategic partnerships, launching mentorship pipelines, and advocating for policy changes to better support African talent globally. "We're all about the economic empowerment of African immigrants in the diaspora," she said. "Both of those things have really shaped who I am today: agile and my immigrant journey."

Get involved

To connect with Stella's initiatives, explore the African Immigrant Collective's "Thriving Beyond Borders" summit on June 28, at 9 a.m. in Duluth, Georgia. This free, high-impact event offers tools, insights, and networking opportunities for African immigrants and allies ready to lead in today's economy.

Stella's journey is more than a personal success story; it's a playbook for visionary leadership, organizational transformation, and community empowerment on a global scale.

Want to give your project management career a leg up? Explore the Certified ScrumMaster course to learn more about delivering value incrementally and growing a team's productivity. You'll earn an in-demand certification to showcase your skills.