Peter Alfred-Adekeye

Peter Adeyemi Alfred-Adekeye is a British Nigerian Internet technology entrepreneur, engineer, investor and consumer advocate. He is the founder, Chief Executive and sole investor of Multiven, the world’s first and leading independent provider of services and applications that maintains the integrity of the software that runs the world’s Internet networks.
Self-made Peter’s personal wealth is unknown but as of September 2015, Multiven was privately estimated to have a valuation ranging between a Unicorn and a decacorn.
Seeing that most emerging countries lack adequate postal mail distribution infrastructure yet, most of their adult citizens have mobile phones, in 2015, Peter founded Postify, a technology startup who's letterbox.world application is a digital version of physical postal letter boxes, that enables everyone to post and receive letters completely electronically from any browser, with no paper nor printing required. Postify's e-post-as-a-service platform, post.world enables Postal Operators to deploy, manage and monetize their digital letterbox service.
Early life
Peter was born in 1967 in Lagos, Nigeria to Afolabi Alfred-Adekeye an Anglo-Nigerian Prince and entrepreneur , who, upon arrival in England as a teenager in 1939 and seeing the atrocities of world war II, joined the British Royal Merchant Navy and Benin Kingdom Princess Toyin Ihama. Peter attended the exclusive Maryland Convent Private School from baby-class and completed his primary school education at the age of 9. He gained admission to Kings College Lagos with flying colours but, due to a change in admission policy by then Lagos State Governor, Admiral Adekunle Lawal, who ordered all Lagos schools to give enrollment preference to children born to Lagos state indigenes over other Nigerian states, he attended CMS Grammar School instead, graduating from High school at the age of 14.
Peter’s interest in computers and electronics began when he was 8 years old, when he would take apart his grandmother’s portable radio and re-assemble it. For his 12th birthday present, his Father bought him a home chemistry and physics laboratory set which he used to explore science at deeper levels. At high school, he was the head of the science club and won many awards at science competitions. At science club weekend meetings, him and his classmates would ponder and prototype future innovations like flying cars, jetpacks, ion-propelled space crafts amongst other ideas. At high school, when the the science teacher was late or absent, Peter’s colleagues would call on him to teach the class. Peter went on to attend Federal School of Arts and Science Victoria Island and then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where he graduated with honors in Civil Engineering having also completed most of the courses required for a degree in Mathematics and Engineering Physics. Years later, Peter attended the Stanford University executive education program in Leadership, Strategic Thinking and Executive Management.
Peter's grandfather, the late High Chief Adekeye, who was Cambridge University educated by correspondence, was the wealthiest Africa timber magnate in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Peter's uncle, the late High Chief Adedapo Adekeye, along with his best friend, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and others, were founding members of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the political group that sought independence for Nigeria from British rule in the 1940s and 1950s.
Career
GT&T
In 1993, Peter launched his first startup which harvested mature and sometimes, fallen plantation teak trees from forests in South West Nigeria, processed and shipped them to customers in Mumbai. He grew this startup to a 100-person team before exiting the business to return to engineering, specifically, Internet network engineering which had always fascinated him. Peter became a millionaire in his twenties from this venture.
IBM
He worked as a multi protocol network engineer for IBM Network Global Services based in North Harbour Portsmouth England.
Cisco
In October 2000 Cisco hired him from IBM to work in advanced consulting engineering where he was consulting for Cisco customers with over $1 Billion in Cisco network equipment e.g. UUNet, Level 3, Global Crossing. Whilst in the UK, Peter rose to become the most decorated Cisco engineer with the highest number of excellent customer satisfaction ratings (High 5s) in the world. In 2003 Cisco relocated Peter to its headquarters in Silicon Valley where he became a Technical Leader and led a crack team of engineers responsible for identifying, recreating and solving Cisco IOS software defects at source code-level as well as core architecture hardware problems. In 2004, Peter informed Cisco Chairman and then CEO, John T. Chambers that he foresaw a future where hardware and software would become commodities and as such, long term value lies in services to make all Internet-connected devices work better.
Multiven
On May 6, 2005, Peter resigned from Cisco to found Multiven, taken from the word Multivendor.
Multiven v. Cisco
The lack of a politically-neutral, and therefore manufacturer-independent, provider of maintenance services to ensure the integrity, security and reliability of the software that runs the world's current Internet network infrastructure and the fast emerging Internet-of-Things led Peter to found Multiven in Palo Alto, California in 2005 with a mission of providing owners and operators of Internet networks with independent and affordable software maintenance services.
However, upon entering the market, Multiven quickly realized that the lack of competition in this multi-billion dollar market was because Cisco, the dominant networking equipment manufacturer, tied its software updates to its maintenance services (SMARTnet). Multiven, under Peter’s leadership immediately led global advocacy efforts to open up this multi-billion dollar market to free and fair competition and improve Internet security. After several months of dialogue failed to dissuade Cisco from continuing with its anti-competitive behavior, Multiven filed a US federal antitrust lawsuit against Cisco on December 1, 2008 for violations of the Sherman Act
During mediation in April 2009, Cisco offered Multiven millions of dollars and limited, but not all, software updates. Multiven rejected this offer as it still limited free and fair competition in the industry.
Cisco then threatened Multiven that if it did not accept the offer, it would use its financial and political might to discredit Multiven and its founder, Peter. Naturally, Multiven insisted on Cisco providing all software updates to customers with no limitations. Two months thereafter in June 2009, Cisco filed a number of baseless counterclaims in the civil lawsuit that were later amended in November 2009 to include false claims that Multiven’s CEO, who along with the Multiven advocacy team, had been at the forefront of holding Cisco accountable for monopolizing the market, had illegally downloaded Cisco software five times in 2006 with a total value of over $5,000.
Cisco then used the exact same lies in its civil counterclaims to orchestrate the wrongful arrest of Mr Alfred-Adekeye on May 20, 2010 during his deposition in Multiven’s federal antitrust lawsuit against Cisco in Vancouver Canada, with the US Prosecutor in San Jose, where Cisco is headquartered, acting at Cisco’s behest, requesting his extradition to supposedly face 'criminal' charges for the same falsely fabricated alleged counterclaims in the civil suit.
Two days after Peter’s arrest, Cisco’s attorneys called Multiven’s attorneys to say, do you now see how powerful Cisco is? Tell Multiven to drop its antitrust case. On hearing this, Multiven continued the litigation with even more vigour with Peter hosting conference calls from custody day and night. Six weeks after Peter’s arrest on July 19, 2010, Cisco settled Multiven’s antitrust lawsuit making all its software updates available to all Multiven customers globally. This effectively made Multiven the world’s first independent services competitor to Cisco’s $21 billion a year services business.
Mr Alfred-Adekeye was released on bail from custody after 28 days and had to spend the following year in downtown Vancouver on very strict bail terms. Whilst in custody, he was affectionately nicknamed 'The Mandela of the Internet'.
In his ruling of May 31, 2011, the Honorable Mr Justice Ronald McKinnon of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver Canada stayed the extradition proceedings indefinitely and set Mr Alfred-Adekeye free. Mr Justice McKinnon went on to say that;
…Fundamental to respect for the criminal law is the notion that issuance of criminal proceedings to effect resolution of civil matters ought not to be countenanced. Such a process encourages unseemly partnerships which, when viewed by a well-informed public, would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. At bar, it would appear cisco representatives were very much complicit with US Justice authorities to utilize the criminal process to put as much pressure on Mr Alfred-Adekeye as they possibly could.
…the criminal complaint mirrors the civil complaint, and the only reasonable inference I can draw from the facts is that the criminal process was used to pressure (unsuccessfully) into abandoning his antitrust suit against Cisco. In invoking the extradition process, the requesting state painted a sinister picture of the applicant which was completely unjustified. Any well-informed person acquainted with the truth would conclude that the collective result of the mistreatment of Mr Alfred-Adekeye offended fundamental notions of justice damaging to the integrity of the administration of justice.
Despite the May 31, 2011 ruling of the Honorable Mr Justice McKinnon which lambasted the illegal collusion between Cisco and US Justice authorities, as well as a global public outcry against this blatant abuse of process, on August 3, 2011 Cisco persisted in its defamatory campaign against Mr Alfred-Adekeye by sponsoring an indictment based on the exact same lies in its civil counterclaim in Multiven v. Cisco, claiming that Mr Alfred-Adekeye or someone under his control at Multiven downloaded and stole Cisco software with a value of over $5,000, five times in 2006 and has been referring to Mr Adekeye in its sales and marketing presentations as a "fugitive" in order to dissuade customers from purchasing Multiven's competitive services.
Postify
In 2015, Peter founded and solely funded Postify with the mission of enabling the world to post and receive letters completely electronically via any browser at the speed of electronic mail, while retaining the formality of paper letters. This way, the world will save 4 billion trees from been felled yearly for paper making, while also protecting the environment from the CO2 emissions of postal trucks and motorcycles as they travel the 3.60 Billion kilometers annually to deliver paper letters.
Opinions
Peter is a strong believer in the power of the Internet as the gateway to information and knowledge for the benefit of mankind, especially those in emerging economies. As an engineer with a very deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet’s core software, he has always advocated for all software manufacturers to make bug fixes readily available because Every cyberattack is an exploitation of a software defect. and a refusal to make all software updates freely available immediately to all owners and operators of Internet-enabled devices, puts the Internet and all Internet-enabled devices e.g. connected cars, and the livelihoods of those that rely upon it, at risk of avoidable cyberattacks on a daily basis.
As a Christian and a scientist, Peter believes that science is mankind’s logical attempt at understanding and explaining the mysteries of God; And when science finally gets to unravel the ultimate miracle of resurrection, humans will finally be reinstated as God-like, the privilege we lost, and have had to toil for, ever since we disobeyed God in the garden of Eden.
Non-profit
Upon arrival in Silicon Valley in 2003 and observing that despite the large numbers of Africans in the Bay Area, none were venturing to launch their own technology startups. Inspired by The Indus Entrepreneurs, Peter founded The African Network to both showcase Africa as the next big global market for investors via annual conferences and serve as a support structure for up and coming African technology entrepreneurs. Africa-focused venture firm, Adlevo Capital is one of several success stories inspired by The African Network.
Personal life
Peter is a member the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security which is tasked with securing the European Union's cyberspace. He is a master troubleshooter and enjoys practicing ancient Japanese martial arts.
Peter is married with three children and resides in Switzerland.

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