Rotimi Akinyele Appointed as CTO at Deriv
Deriv, a global online trading company, has appointed Rotimi Akinyele as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The appointment will see him lead the company’s engineering organisation as it extends its AI-native strategy.
About the New Role
Akinyele joined Deriv in July 2024 as Vice President of Security. Since then, his responsibilities have expanded on several business functions, including Security, Data, Compliance, Finance, Trading and Antifraud.
As CTO, Akinyele will work on automating work across every function, improving the company’s internal AI intelligence layer, and developing a self-improving, agentic loop for software development. Also, Deriv plans to keep strong security controls as AI agents take on eminent access and responsibility. The company strives to assure that security stays central to its automation efforts as it expands the use of AI across its operations.
His Previous Experience
Since joining Deriv, Akinyele has taken on vaster responsibilities. Initially, he led Security and Data before moving into automation across Compliance, Data and Finance. More recently, he also assumed responsibilities across Trading and Antifraud.
Before joining Deriv, Akinyele served as Director in the Group Information Security Department at Dubai Holding. He oversaw cybersecurity across its hospitality, real estate, information and communications technology (ICT), media and education portfolios. He previously worked as Head of Information Security and Business Continuity at a government authority in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.
What Executive Says
Rakshit Choudhary, Chief Executive Officer of Deriv, expressed confidence in Akinyele’s leadership and stressed his growth within the company. Choudhary explained that Deriv wants to build an AI-native business and sees Akinyele as a main leader in that transition. Also, he stressed that grander automation and risen responsibility for AI agents will create a need to secure more systems and operations. For this reason, Deriv intends to make security controls a rudimentary part of how it develops and deploys technology.
Akinyele said he was honoured to take on the role at an important stage in Deriv’s development. He noted that the engineering teams had spent the past year changing their approach to software development. His priority is to maintain that momentum and ensure security measures and controls keep pace with every new system the company automates. He also expressed his commitment to working with Deriv’s engineers to advance this strategy.
About Deriv
Jean-Yves Sireau founded Deriv in 1999. It is a global online trading company. It started as Regent Markets Group with a mission to make online trading accessible to the masses. Deriv offers trading in CFDs and other derivatives on forex, stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and derived indices. The company operates multiple trading platforms to provide flexibility and control for traders.
Wrapping Up
Deriv’s appointment of Rotimi Akinyele is another step in its transition towards an AI-native operating model. His experience will support the company’s engineering strategy as it works towards automating 75% of its manual workflows by the end of 2026.
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