Husband and wife team Fred and Perteet Spencer co-founded AYO Foods in 2019 to bring West African meals, ingredients, and flavors to the West. Fred Spencer is a Chicago native with over 20 years of entrepreneur, finance, and strategy experience for companies such as Best Buy, Sleep Number, and Ameriprise Financial. He holds a B.A. in Finance and Accounting from DePaul University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management. Perteet Spencer, a first-generation Liberian American who learned to cook West African food from her father, has over 15 years of experience leading and developing high performance sales and marketing teams, including senior marketing positions at leading food companies General Mills, TreeHouse Foods, and SPINS. She holds a B.S. in Marketing and Information Systems from DePaul University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management.