Speaker / Host
Ayo Akinwolere
Ayo Akinwolere is a vibrant and experienced Broadcaster. With a 13-year career in Entertainment, Sport and Factual television, Ayo started his journey as a presenter on Blue Peter the BBC’s flagship children’s programme. A very experienced event host and moderator Ayo has been employed by some of the best events companies in the world. They include Havas, M&C Saachi, Imagination, TBA, Auditoire (Paris) and WRG.
About Ayo Akinwolere
Ayo Akinwolere also hosted Natixis Investment Managers Summit ’Shaping the Geopolitical World Order’ in Paris. The event looked at the future of Europe with former heads of state Nicola Sarkozy, Gerhard Schroeder and Matteo Renzi as panellists. The previous year he hosted and moderated Sodexo Quality of Life Conference which brought together some of the most innovative minds in the world.
Ayo Akinwolere was nominated for the Children’s BAFTA Factual Programme of the year within a year of joining Blue Peter. After another five years presenting on Blue Peter and another two Children’s Bafta nominations Ayo went on to Fort Boyard Ultimate Challenge for CITV. There he earned himself another Children’s BAFTA nomination for Entertainment programme of the year.
Subsequently he made the leap from children’s tv to current affairs in 2014. He became the presenter of Inside Out in the West Midlands, which is a flagship BBC Current Affairs programme. In his first year on the show, he won the Factual RTS (Royal Television Society) Award for his documentary on Extremism. Furthermore, he won the BBC Ruby Award for Programme of the year. He’s a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Our Home Correspondent, focusing on stories based on identity.
Ayo can also been seen presenting Channel 4’s Rugby coverage, he’s anchored Irelands rugby test matches live from the Aviva Arena in Dublin. Additionally, he was the co-host of the live Saturday morning rugby magazine show ‘The Big Tackle.’ He reports for BBC Sport on the Premier League Show and Football Focus. Football and sport are one of Ayo’s passions. He currently hosts a weekly Football magazine show called Premier League Today for Premier League Productions.
He’s written for the likes of the Daily Telegraph, National Geographic Kids Magazine, Huffington Post and True Africa.
Ayo has also toured universities across Britain with his lecture ‘Finding Your Voice’ inspiring to be broadcasters to find their voices as performers or as potential employees in the television industry.
World record holder
Outside of his television career, Ayo has a set two world records. These were for swimming in one of the deepest stretches of water on earth. Ayo is one of four people of colour with a swimming world record In 2015 Ayo created a THE SWIM CHALLENGE, a project looking to prove that people of colour can swim.
He’s also a keen traveller having seen over 120 different countries around the world. He’s bi-lingual speaking both Yoruba and English. A keen lover of music he created JUJU Music a club night, to showcase his collection of West African Music and share his love of his Nigerian/British heritage.
