Buku Ibraheem

Buku is a Nigerian-American brand architect who builds brands and tells meaningful stories through faith-inspired passion, purpose and creativity. She’s passionate about helping brands build different verticals and extensions within their respective spaces, while developing creatively disruptive and integrated marketing strategies.

As a Music and Culture Global Brand Marketing Manager at Beats by Dr. Dre, Buku creates and leads marketing campaigns through intentional strategy and storytelling and has been responsible for some of the most impactful projects at the company. She spearheaded and launched the brand’s first ever Black History Month campaign titled, Beats Black Future — celebrating the next generation of Black leaders, creators and entrepreneurs. Buku ensured that the team found more ways to extend its impact beyond the month. This intention is what inspired the HBCU Black Futures Creator Program, the Emmy-nominated short film, “You Love Me”, the “Bloom'' campaign, where Beats gave Black women their flowers and several other initiatives. Buku continues to use her strategic prowess and position at Beats as a brand architect to champion the Black community at every turn.

However, it’s bigger than marketing for Buku. She believes that one of the biggest threats to the Black community is the lack of access and representation; because you can’t be what you can’t see. Similar to several kids, growing up as a first generation Nigerian-American, she was presented with a very narrow view of what success looked like (doctor, lawyer or engineer). Thankfully, Buku has been able to create a blueprint of her own despite her traditional upbringing. And because of that, she’s adamant about being the personification of possibility for those who look like her, so they too can live out their dreams and operate in their original design.