Bio
Odun Olowookere is research director of digital economy at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). His professional experience spans areas such as commercial litigation, corporate finance, financial transactions, energy infrastructure development regulation, and fintech and banking regulation. With an interdisciplinary background in law and finance, Odun’s work focuses on how technological change is reshaping money, monetary institutions and the global financial system.
As research director at CIGI, he leads research on the governance of the digital economy, covering issues such as digital trade, monetary law, digital financial market infrastructure, investor protection, digital assets and payment systems, as well as the institutional design challenges raised by emerging financial technologies. Odun examines how these developments challenge existing regulatory frameworks and create growing tensions between public authority and rapidly evolving digital financial ecosystems. His work pays particular attention to issues of monetary sovereignty, cross-border regulatory coordination and the role of public institutions in governing digital finance and global payment infrastructures.
He has published on digital finance, digital assets and payment instruments in the International Monetary Fund’s Finance & Development magazine. His collaborative research on compliance design options for digital currencies received the Best Paper Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2024. His work has also informed policy discussions and legislative submissions on regulatory frameworks for digital assets in Canada and the United States, as well as broader debates on global digital currency governance, financial innovation and compliance.
Odun holds an LL.B. from Babcock University; an M.Sc. in law and finance, with specialization in corporate finance, from Queen Mary University of London; and an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, where he also conducts doctoral research at the intersection of law, economics and public policy.