EHIS'S
JOURNEY
From Benin City to Silicon Valley — the journey to finding my voice.
Origins
Where I'm From
I was born and raised in Benin City, Nigeria. Growing up, mornings started at 4am — my mother would be up before the sun, and the sound I remember most from those early hours is the Voice of America playing softly on the radio. Those broadcasts planted something in me: a curiosity about the wider world, and a quiet hunger to be part of it.
That hunger had roots. My father dreamed of studying abroad — a dream he never got to pursue. In our small home, he kept stacks of brochures from universities across the US and UK. Images of students lying on green lawns, studying, laughing. He'd look at them and imagine.
Two days before my 13th birthday, he passed suddenly in tragic circumstances.
He never got to live that dream. But he left it for me. I was the first in my family to move abroad. That's not a small thing. It means you carry everyone with you — every hope, every sacrifice, every early morning — when you step onto that plane. I wasn't just chasing my own future. I was finishing something my father started.
“My father never got to live his dream of studying in America. He passed when I was 13. That dream became my own.”
The Journey
The Weight of an Accent
I arrived in the United States at 17. And for the next ten years, I stayed quiet.
Not because I had nothing to say. I had plenty to say. But I feared being misunderstood. I hated that moment — you know the one — when someone asks you to repeat yourself, and you wonder if it's about the words or something deeper. I started to believe that my accent meant I didn't belong. That it was evidence of something lacking.
So I shrank. In meetings, in classrooms, in conversations where I knew the answer but chose silence. Ten years of shrinking.
But that silence didn't last forever.
“I started to believe that my accent meant I didn't belong. That it was evidence of something lacking.”
The Journey
Three Pivotal Moments
Three moments that proved my voice was always enough.
Professor Michelle Tooley: The First Person Who Heard My Voice
I was rehearsing a community presentation with her when she stopped me. Just two words: “Project, Ehis.” But what she was really saying was: your voice deserves to be heard. She believed in me before I had learned to believe in myself. Sometimes that's all it takes — one person seeing something in you that you haven't seen yet.
A KPMG Client Call: When My Voice Finally Landed
I was on a call, nervous as usual, when something shifted. The client wasn't listening to my accent. They were listening to my analysis. They cared about the value of the message, not the delivery. I walked out of that call different.
Kellogg: Realizing I Belonged
For the first time, I saw myself as equal to people I'd once put on a pedestal — those from big-name schools, wealthy families, impressive pedigrees. I realized I was no less smart, no less capable. I belonged too.
I led the Africa Business Club. I had the ambitious idea to bring the Black Panther cast to campus — my classmates didn't dismiss it. They listened. We didn't get the cast, but we brought in Nnedi Okorafor, the award-winning author and Black Panther comics writer, to discuss Africanfuturism. It worked because I stopped waiting to feel like I belonged before I acted like I did.
The Mission
Why This Podcast Exists
I don't want another immigrant to spend ten years shrinking themselves. I don't want another young professional to stay quiet in rooms they worked hard to enter.
Your accent is not a weakness. It is evidence of the journey you survived. Every mispronounced word, every asked-to-repeat-yourself moment — that's the cost of crossing. And you paid it.
“Your voice has enormous power. You only get better by using it.”
Unmuted Moments exists to tell those stories — the fears, the breakthroughs, the quiet decisions to take up space. Because the world needs your voice.
Here's how that journey unfolded.
From Benin City to Wall Street to Silicon Valley.
New York City
KPMG
Audit Associate → Senior Audit Associate
Where I learned the language of business — and started finding my footing in rooms where I didn't always feel like I belonged.
New York City
Goldman Sachs
Senior Financial Analyst → Finance Associate | Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Wall Street. The name alone carried weight. I showed up, did the work, and proved to myself that the kid from Benin City could hold his own on one of the world's biggest stages.
Chicago
Kellogg School of Management
MBA
Kellogg didn't just sharpen my business mind — it gave me permission to take up space.
Chicago → San Francisco
William Blair
Investment Banking Associate → Vice President | Healthcare Group
From associate to VP. I learned that the higher you climb, the more your voice — not just your analysis — determines your impact.
San Francisco → Atlanta
M&A Finance, Other Bets Portfolio
Today I lead M&A and valuation work at one of the world's most influential companies. Proof that your accent, your background, and your story are assets — not liabilities.