Deriv don appoint Rotimi Akinyele as Chief Technology Officer to lead im AI-native engineering strategy
Dubai, 22nd October 2026 – Deriv, one global leader for online trading, don appoint Rotimi Akinyele as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). E join di company for July 2024 as Vice President of Security, and since den, e don take on more responsibilities across di business.
As CTO, Rotimi go lead Deriv engineering organisation. Im main priorities na to automate work for every function, improve Deriv internal AI intelligence layer, and build one self-improving agentic loop for software development. Controls and security still remain di main focus for dis work as AI agents dey get more access and responsibility.
From Security to CTO: record of consistent delivery
Since Rotimi don join Deriv, e don lead Security and Data, afta dat automation across Compliance, Data and Finance, and more recently Trading and Antifraud. Throughout dis time, e don keep security and access controls as di main focus for how Deriv dey deploy AI.
Before e join Deriv, e bin be Director for di Group Information Security Department at Dubai Holding, wey dey oversee cybersecurity across dia hospitality, real estate, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), media and education portfolios. Before dat, e bin be Head of Information Security and Business Continuity for one government authority for Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.
Rakshit Choudhary, Chief Executive Officer of Deriv, tok say: “Rotimi don grow as a leader throughout di time wey e don spend wit us. I get confidence for am as CTO, and I dey look forward to working closely wit am make we build an AI-native Deriv. As we dey automate more work and give agents more access and responsibility, we get more systems and operations wey we need to secure. Our controls need to be di foundation of how we dey build.”
Rotimi Akinyele add say: “I feel honoured to take on dis role at one important turning point for Deriv. Our engineering teams don spend di past year to change how we dey build, and my focus na to maintain dat pace while I make sure say security and controls dey grow wit every system we automate. I dey look forward to working wit our engineers to make dat happen.”
Di appointment show how Deriv dey develop leaders from inside di company as e dey build an AI-native company. Deriv don set target to automate 75% of manual workflows by di end of 2026.
