Funmi Ekundayo leads STL Capital Group and CSIA, driving governance reforms, trusteeship innovation, and global professional standards.
Funmi Ekundayo has spent nearly 30 years working across law, financial services, capital markets, trusteeship, and corporate governance in Nigeria.
Today, she serves as Group Managing Director and CEO of STL Capital Group, and as of December 2025 was appointed to lead the Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) as its President. This role places her at the centre of global governance conversations across more than four continents.
How it all started
Ekundayo’s path began at the University of Lagos, where she earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Law before deepening her executive training at Harvard Business School, Lagos Business School, and IESE Business School. She started her legal career with Banwo & Ighodalo, completed the National Youth Service Corps program at Bentley Edu & Co. in 1996, and remained in private legal practice for almost a decade.
That period grounded her in commercial law, corporate structures, and regulatory frameworks, which later informed her pivot into capital markets.
That transition began when she joined NAL Asset Management & Trustees, now Sterling Asset Management & Trustees (SAMTL), and continued at UBA Trustees, now United Capital Trustees, before moving to Skye Trustees, which later evolved into STL Trustees. These roles exposed her to trusteeship, structured finance, and investor protection mechanisms.
By 2005, she had also earned her Chartered Secretary qualification with merit from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), becoming a Fellow and joining the Governing Council shortly after.
Her leadership trajectory sharpened in 2010 when she became Managing Director/CEO of STL Trustees Limited. Under her direction, the company recorded exponential growth in profit, business size, and market visibility. She led innovations in structuring complex financial and trust instruments and drove the organisation into industry leadership, earning awards such as the Trustees Company CEO of the Year from BusinessDay BAFI, the Nigeria Finance Innovation Awards, and Marketing Edge Awards.
She also oversaw the establishment of STL Asset Management Limited and contributed to shaping STL Capital Group into a holding structure with broader capital market ambitions.
Her rise inside ICSAN accelerated just as quickly. After years on the Governing Council and various committees, she became the first woman elected Vice President/Vice Chairman in 2021 and then President-Elect in March 2023.
Her tenure as President has delivered tangible reforms in capacity building, strengthened financial stability through new sponsorships, and increased national and chapter visibility. She equally chaired the Presidential Intervention Committee on the ICSAN Building Project and served on committees such as Finance and General Purposes, helping to streamline the institute’s governance processes.
Her recognitions extend beyond professional institutes. The Securities and Exchange Commission recognised her work in capital market development through her service on committees, including the Capital Market Committee, the National Investor Protection Fund, and Rules and Compliance. She also served as Past President of the Association of Corporate Trustees of Nigeria and was a member of the Lagos State Real Estate Regulation Committee. These roles placed her at the centre of regulatory dialogue on investor protection, real estate governance, and capital market innovation.
Her global recognition culminated in December 2025, when the CSIA announced her election as President – an announcement first published on the CSIA website over the weekend of December 6–7 and confirmed by STL Capital Group on December 8. Before this appointment, she had served as CSIA’s Honorary Treasurer and Vice President. Her mandate now focuses on strengthening governance standards internationally, expanding capacity-building programs for member institutes, and positioning CSIA as a leading global voice for governance professionals.
