Ayodeji Balogun is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited where he is leading a team of experts leveraging technology, innovative finance, and inclusive agriculture to connect agriSMEs and smallholder farmers to commodity and financial markets. He holds an MBA from Lagos Business School; Global CEO – Africa from IESE Business School and a certificate in Creative Leadership from the THNK School of Creative Leadership. Ayodeji has almost twenty years' experience trading across West Africa as well as in building and scaling businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa. He serves on several capital market boards and works with several institutions on food security and financing agriculture. With a marked focus on food security, as a personal and life-long mission, Ayodeji has been a pivotal member of several impact-oriented projects and organisations, including being the West Africa Chapter Coordinator for the Aspen Network for Developing Entrepreneurs from 2011 to 2013; the Technical Advisor for the Food and Strategic Grain Reserve on National and Regional (ECOWAS) Food Security from 2014 to 2015; a Member of the National Agribusiness Development Council in 2016; a Member of the Advisory Board of Synergos Nigeria from 2017 to 2019; and currently serving as the Chairman Steering Committee of the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN, IFAD); Board Member, Capital Market Development Fund; and Member Board of Trustees, Association of Securities Exchange in Nigeria. His corporate career, prior to his current role, has included work as an analyst with Unilever Nigeria Plc.; an associate role at Doreo Partners, where he contributed to the development of Nigeria's Agriculture Transformation Plan (in 2011) and the design of Doreo's flagship impact investment - Babangona - a farm franchise out-grower scheme currently with 20,000 farmer membership that has witnessed a tripling of farmers yield and an increase in their income levels by over 200% since launch. He has also served as a visiting consultant to DFID (GEMS3) and the Ministry of Agriculture on value chain development where he was part of the design of a 30,000Ha plantation and the Ministry's Staple Crop Processing Zones.