Bolarinde Joseph Lawal is an innovative Medical Laboratory Scientist with 25 years of experience, having led clinical and research laboratories in Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and now Zambia. In 2014, he joined the Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia as Clinical Laboratories Manager. Subsequently, in 2019, Mr Lawal joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) as an overseas-based staff member in Sierra Leone, where he managed the consortium laboratory jointly operated by the University of Sierra Leone and LSHTM. Later, he was appointed Interim Laboratory Director – Africa, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Laboratory Coordinator for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation–funded Global Human Papillomavirus Burden Estimation Project. He served in this capacity until August 2025, when he joined CIDRZ as Director – Laboratory. Mr Lawal is also a PRINCE2-certified Project Manager, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK), and a Clinical Chemistry Fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science.