Abie Ekangaki

Education
Master’s and PhD, Statistics, University of Southampton, UK
Bachelors, Mathematics, University of Lagos, Nigeria

As vice president of statistical consulting for a mid-size global contract research organization that supports research and development in the biotech space, Abie Ekangaki provides statistical expertise in advanced trial design methodologies to help drive efficient trial designs for clients’ clinical development programs. In addition, he represents clients at scientific and regulatory advisory meetings and supports business development strategic customer engagement, where he brings workable solutions and sound statistical guidance to client portfolios.

Ekangaki was born in Cameroon, West Africa, and moved to London, England, in the early 1970s with his family, where he spent his formative years shuttling between the continents. After earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, he returned to England to complete his master’s and PhD degrees in biostatistics at the University of Southampton. Since then, he has worked in Switzerland, Australia, and the United States for the World Health Organization and in academia and the pharmaceutical industry.

Ekangaki’s interest in statistics spurs from a personal work experience during a summer job at his father’s firm while in high school, when he was exposed to converting data into information or, said differently, exposed to the process of extracting information from data while discovering how to leverage knowledge of that process to influence thinking around the usefulness of data. As his experience and career evolved, Ekangaki came to develop a keen appreciation for the degree to which technical impact and strategic leadership are integral to the role of a statistician.

This awareness has swayed Ekangaki’s interests as a statistician toward leveraging both advanced statistical methodology and fundamental statistical principles of clinical trial design and inference to enable or influence important strategic decisions. His passage into this realm has unveiled the need for statistical leadership—not just administrative leadership positions for statisticians but a statistician’s individual ability to successfully engage others by articulating and distilling complex statistical concepts into easily understood and pragmatic solutions. Ekangaki claims personal satisfaction each time he observes a display of leadership and influence from statisticians whose personal development he has had the opportunity to positively effect.

Ekangaki’s ethos as a statistician is inspired by Karl Pierson, who said, “Statistics is the Grammar of Science.” Ekangaki believes the ability to communicate statistics with clarity crystalizes the influence a statistician holds.