Ayo Sotinrin is an ardent Environmentalist turned development finance expert with a major interest in infrastructure development.

He is the Founder of SAO Group of companies and has led his diverse portfolio of companies SAO Agro, SAO Capital and SAO Energy to success in the last 10 years. At SAO Agro, he spearheaded the development of a multi-hectare oil palm plantation , and oversaw diverse value chains, including poultry production and processing, aquaculture, and the development of large-scale plantations. SAO is currently the anchor investor for the Ondo State “Special Agro-processing Zone project.

As the Chief Executive Officer of SAO Capital, Mr. Sotinrin was instrumental in securing the firm's appointment as the sole Investment and Multilateral Advisory firm to Ondo State Government. Under his leadership, SAO Capital raised over half a billion dollars ($750m) for various developmental projects, including the $200m Akure Water Supply infrastructure Project, road development, large Scale Agriculture project financing and over 500 Solar electrification connections of healthcare centres, literacy centres and small communities.

Prior to founding SAO, he was Special Assistant (Environment) to the Honourable Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He also worked as the LEAD Environmental Safeguard Specialist at the World Bank PPP Unit under the Federal Ministry of Finance for 5 years, before then, at the Presidency-Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission  developing infrastructure concessions in sectors such as Transportation, Power, Water, Aviation, and agriculture.

Prior to that Ayo was engaged as the Lead consultant -Planning Monitoring and Evaluation by Deloitte Arlington USA on the Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport Program (NEXTT) funded by USAID and worked as an Advisor to the Nigerian Minister of State, Trade and Investment.

He has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford, a Masters in Engineering Business Management from University of Warwick and an Advanced Diploma in Environmental Conservation.

A Crans-Montana fellow and recently named one of the most influential people of African decent, he currently serves as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer at the Bank of Agriculture, Nigeria.