Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf previously served as Hospital Superintendent in the Limpopo Province, as the Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, and is currently the Head of the School of Health Systems and Public Health at the University of Pretoria.

After receiving a PhD in health promotion and health education from Maastricht University (The Netherlands), he went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship training in public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. His main research focus is on behavioural epidemiology and related policy translation for non-communicable diseases (NCD) prevention. Over the past 20 years, he has been an investigator and/or co-investigator on national and international research, including clinical trials and regional capacity-building projects related to tobacco use prevention, treatment/cessation and policy advocacy as it relates to commercial determinants of health.

Professor Ayo-Yusuf is B1 NRF-rated scientist with 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He serves as a member of the editorial board on several international journals and as a member of several national and international scientific committees/boards including current role as the Chair of the Standing committee on Health of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), a member of the WHO Tobacco Regulation Scientific Group and Chair of Gauteng Provincial Health Research Committee.