The Leadership Team
The Leadership Team plays a critical role in decision-making, resource allocation, and managing key partnerships. Each member of the Leadership Team brings their expertise to help guide the organization towards achieving its goals.
Gbadebo Odularu
PhD, University of Sunderland, UK.
Founder, Chief Strategist, and Editor-in-Chief
Gbadebo Odularu has dedicated nearly 25 years of his career to the global nonprofit sector. He served as the regional food policy advocacy and analyst for the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa for almost a decade. In addition to its food and nutrition security (FNS) knowledge expertise, he has garnered in-the-field food value chain experience at the Fresh Food Logistics Departments of major American multinational supermarket and retail corporations that operate a chain of grocery stores, and hypermarkets such as Walmart Inc and Sheetz Inc.
Gbadebo is driven by the mission to eliminate hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition by leading several strategic initiatives aimed at distributing nutritious food across vulnerable communities while addressing the root causes of hunger. He currently leads the practice and establishment of food trade and digitalization academies which are aimed at enhancing food logistics and connectivity infrastructure towards expanding the percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed (FFVC) by our priority populations, including infants, children, mothers, older adults, and the minorities. In 2019, Gbadebo volunteered for the Buffalow Family and Friends Community Days (BFFCD), in collaboration with the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore. BFFCD is a family-oriented organization offering food, clothing, support, and encouragement to individuals and communities in Chesapeake, Virginia. Gbadebo has always perceived food banking volunteering as a great opportunity to replicate this initiative in Africa, therefore putting food directly into the hands of the hungriest. As No Hunger Food Bank (NHFB)’s Founder, Chief Strategist, and Editor-in-Chief, he is also responsible for advancing NHFB’s capacities’ frontiers for bracing it for the future of sustainable food and nutrition security in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). He is also affiliated with the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), Socio-Economic Research and Applications (SERAP), and the Bay Atlantic University, Washington DC, USA.
Bamidele Adekunle
Ph.D. The University of Guelph, Canada
Digitalization and Innovation Lead
Bamidele Adekunle leads No Hunger Food Bank (NHFB)’s corporate digitalization, innovation, and technology footprint, thereby defining its five-year digital visibility roadmap, end-to-end conversions, mobile applications, and systems integration strategy. Bamidele is the founder of ethnocultural vegetables (ECV) Ontario, as well as the brain behind Hikma360, an information and mobile app that reduces asymmetric information in the halal food market. Based on his affiliation with the University of Guelph and Ted Rogers University, Canada, Bamidele has served as principal investigators on food security-related initiatives.
Mrs Kumdet Longdi Yilkon
Ph.D. The University of Guelph, Canada
Digitalization and Innovation Lead
Kumdet Longdi Yilkon has a great interest in deploying information tools for enhancing the welfare of children, women, and the elderly, thereby contributing to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal I (UN SDG1) – ‘End poverty in all its forms and everywhere’. As a graduate of Mass Communication from National Open University, Nigeria (NOUN), Kumdet is NHFB’s Food Facilitation Lead.
Ms. Ronke Adedugbe
MBA, Global Business, University of Coventry, London, UK
Impact, Marketing & Communications Lead
At Nohunger Food Bank, Ronke oversees our Impact, Marketing & Communications portfolio and is responsible for marketing, developing, leading, and executing marketing, communications, and brand strategy to further our mission. Her primary contributions focus on further building our global brand proposition and driving contributed revenue through collaboration and support of our meal packaging food drive, donor fundraising, and awareness initiatives. Ronke has a passion to alleviate hunger, create food security spaces among underprivileged and vulnerable populations; and empower women to thrive in their communities. Ronke also spearheads initiatives pertaining to measuring the effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of No Hunger Food Bank.
Frejus Thoto
PhD (in view), LSE, United Kingdom
Food & Youth Entrepreneurship Lead
Frejus Thoto is the Executive Director of ACED, a think-and-do-tank that connects research to policy and action with the aim to improve the food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable in Benin and Africa. Frejus also devotes some of his time to DagriVest, a startup he co-founded that help young Africans develop a business or find a decent job in the agricultural sector. Frejus studied agricultural economics with a specialization in agricultural entrepreneurship and agribusiness. Based on these vastly robust and global experience, Frejus Thoto serves as NHFB’s Food and Youth Entrepreneurship Lead.
Akinseye Olatokunboh Aluko
Food Business, Education & Logistics Lead
Akinseye Olatokunbo Aluko, PhD, University of Sunderland, UK. Food Business, Education and Logistics Lead. Dr Aluko is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bestfield Business and Management Consultants, which is based in the United Kingdom. His global business, education logistics teaching career started since 2011 at the University of Teesside where I earned 2 masters – International Management and Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). Dr. Aluko is currently a full-time business logistics researcher, lecturer as well as the Oil & Gas Management Deputy Programme Leader at the University of East London, United Kingdom. He is passionate about leveraging smart business logistics and analytics for ending hunger in the world.
Gbadebo Elebiyo
Farm Standards Promotion Lead
Gbadebo has a Master of Philosophy in soil science from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi in Ghana, and a Bachelor of technology in general agriculture at Federal University of Technology, Minna in Nigeria with First Class. Gbadebo Elebiyo is currently employed at Leadway Assurance Company Limited, since December 2018, holding the title of Field Agriculturist and Operations Officer. He is skilled in soil analysis, soil sampling, environmental science, project development, environmental awareness, water, and agric insurance. Gbadebo has carried out several risk survey assessments on different farms as a field agriculturist namely, wheat, tomato, rice, cashew, sugar cane, ginger, oil palm, sweet potato, fish farming, poultry, warehouse, farm property and produce. Some of the inspected farms are worth several millions of naira. He underwrites Agric insurance and do pre- and post-lost loss risk assessment. Gbadebo is skilled in farm project. He consulted for GLG research on a project titled “Agriculture and artificial intelligence in Sub-Saharan Africa” and Technology Trends Survey. He received two academic awards one from Commonwealth Scholarship in Low- and Middle-Income Countries from 2016 to 2018 and the other from Global Soil Partnership of Food and Agriculture Organization for Travel Grant Fellowship. Gbadebo lives in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria where he and wife are blessed with three kids. His into community service.
Prof. Femi Ayoola
Food Security Statistician
Prof. Femi Ayoola is a dedicated and self-motivated individual with a history of success as a trained statistician in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at several institutions. He obtained his Higher National Diploma in Statistics from The Polytechnic, Ibadan (HND), and Bachelor (B.Sc.), Masters (M.Sc.), and Doctoral degree in Statistics (Ph.D.) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. As an Adjunct Faculty in the College of Business at Jackson State University, MS, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Business Statistics. At Dallas College, Dallas Texas, he also teaches mostly undergraduate courses and serves as a mentor and adviser to a large number of students. He has also taught Elementary Statistics, Statistics and Application software, Business Statistics, Statistics for Business Decisions, Operation Research, Quantitative Techniques, Plane Trigonometric, and College Algebra at other Universities. Furthermore, his areas of interest include: Panel data analysis (longitudinal studies), Econometrics, Time Series, Data Science, Spatial modeling, Bayesian, Computational Statistics, Biostatistics, Research Methodology, Biotechnology, Engineering Statistics, Environmental Statistics, Data Visualization, Data mining /wrangling, Reporting Analysis among others. To date, he has authored and co-authored several scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is passionate about youth empowerment
