Adebayo Ogunlesi

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

Nigerian lawyer and investment banker (born 1953)

title: "Adebayo Ogunlesi" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1953-births", "living-people", "people-from-sagamu", "harvard-law-school-alumni", "harvard-business-school-alumni", "directors-of-goldman-sachs", "law-clerks-of-the-supreme-court-of-the-united-states", "king's-college,-lagos-alumni", "nigerian-investment-bankers", "credit-suisse-people", "yoruba-businesspeople", "20th-century-nigerian-businesspeople", "21st-century-nigerian-businesspeople", "yale-school-of-management-faculty", "nigerian-expatriate-academics-in-the-united-states", "cravath,-swaine-&-moore-people", "carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace", "nigerian-chairpersons-of-corporations", "alumni-of-lincoln-college,-oxford", "people-from-ogun-state", "academic-staff-of-the-university-of-ibadan", "openai-people"] description: "Nigerian lawyer and investment banker (born 1953)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adebayo_Ogunlesi" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Nigerian lawyer and investment banker (born 1953) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Adebayo Ogunlesi
honorific_suffix
image	Adebayo Ogunlesi.jpg
alt	Portrait of Adebayo Ogunlesi
birth_date
birth_place	Sagamu, Southern Region, British Nigeria (now in Ogun State, Nigeria)
spouse
children	2
parents	Oladipo Ogunlesi and Susan Olorunfemi Peters
education
alma_mater	King's College, Lagos
occupation	Investment banker
title	Co-founder Global Infrastructure Partners
years_active	1980–present
::

Early life and education

Ogunlesi comes from Makun, Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is the son of Susan Olorunfemi Peters and Theophilus O. Ogunlesi, the first Nigerian professor of medicine at University of Ibadan. His family is of Yoruba origin.

Ogunlesi went to King's College, Lagos, a secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria. He received a B.A. with first class honors in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University in England. In 1979, Ogunlesi received a JD–MBA from Harvard Law School and later Harvard Business School. During his time at Harvard, he was on the Harvard Law Review.

Career

From 1980 to 1981, Ogunlesi served as a law clerk to associate justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. Ogunlesi was an attorney in the corporate practice group of the New York City law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he had been a summer associate while studying for his M.B.A.

In 1983, Ogunlesi joined the investment bank First Boston as an advisor on a Nigerian gas project.

In July 2006, Ogunlesi started the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a joint venture whose initial investors included Credit Suisse and General Electric. He currently serves as chairman and managing partner.

In 2006, GIP bought London City Airport. The Nigerian press has given him the nickname, "The Man Who Bought Gatwick Airport." and Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, which they bought in February 2018.

In January 2024, BlackRock agreed to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12.5 billion. BlackRock will pay $3 billion in cash and 12 million of its own shares as part of the deal to buy GIP. The 400 people directly employed by GIP will receive some of the stock, and five of the six founding partners, including chief executive Ogunlesi, will join BlackRock as part of the deal.

Additional work

Ogunlesi is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. While working at Credit Suisse First Boston, he was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Yale School of Management,

In October 2012, he was appointed to the board of directors at Goldman Sachs. On 24 July 2014, he was named lead director.

In December 2016, it was announced that Ogunlesi, among other business leaders, would be part of Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, which was disbanded on 16 August 2017.

In January 2025, Ogunlesi joined the board of directors of OpenAI.

Personal life

Ogunlesi has been married to British-born optometrist Dr. Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi since 1985. They have two children. In his song "Wonderful," Burna Boy pays tribute to Adebayo, citing his hard work. As of 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth at US$2.5 billion.

Awards and honors

Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Ogunlesi was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019.

Works and publications

Submitted to: Professor C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. [for the] Seminar: Legal Problems of the New International Economics Order (Harvard third year paper)

References

(14 March 2002). "Accidental Investment Banker Shakes Up Credit Suisse Unit". [[The New York Times]].
(2 December 2002). "2002 Global Influentials. Adebayo Ogunlesi: CSFB's Global-Banking Chief. His Road from Nigerian Doctor's Son to Wall Street Boss Has Crossed Oil Fields, the Supreme Court and a Rifle or Two".
(20 February 2002). "CSFB Names Tony James Chairman of Global Investment Banking and Private Equity".
(1 November 2004). "CSFB Repositions Top Exec". [[Black Enterprise]].
(13 July 2016). "Nigeria's first Professor of Medicine, Theophilus Ogunlesi celebrates 93rd Birthday". Daily Mail, Nigeria.
(26 May 2012). "The Man Who Bought Gatwick Airport - Ventures Africa". Ventures Africa.
Fungayi Tichawona Kapungu. (2004-12-13). "Adebayo Ogunlesi (HBS '79) honored by Harvard African Alumni". The Harbus.
(19 August 2004). "More Management Changes at First Boston". [[The New York Times]].
(3 December 2016). "President-elect Trump Establishes the President's Strategic and Policy Forum". [[Global Infrastructure Partners]].
(21 October 2009). "Gatwick to get upgrade after £1.5bn sale". [[The Guardian]].
(23 April 2012). "Investment Fund to Pay $1.3 Billion for Edinburgh Airport". DealBook, [[The New York Times]].
"Italo shareholders accept GIP's improved takeover offer, scrap IPO plans".
Brush, Silla. (January 12, 2024). "BlackRock Buys Infrastructure Firm GIP for $12.5 Billion in Major Alternatives Push". Bloomberg.
Lawson, Alex. (January 12, 2024). "Sale of UK assets to world's largest money manager means huge payday for bankers". The Guardian.
(16 October 2012). "Goldman Sachs Appoints Nigerian Banker To Its Board". [[Forbes]].
"Board of Directors - Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, Lead Director". [[Goldman Sachs]].
(25 July 2014). "Goldman Sachs Names Ogunlesi New Lead Director". DealBook, [[The New York Times]].
(2016-12-03). "Breaking: Trump appoints Nigerian Ogunlesi member of his economic team".
Criddle, Cristina. (2025-01-14). "OpenAI appoints one of Wall Street's most powerful dealmakers to its board". Financial Times.
(September 1985). "Adebayo O Ogunlesi mentioned in the record of Quist and Adebayo O Ogunlesi".
"Board of Directors Biographies: Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi". [[Lighthouse Guild.
"As I dey hustle like Adebayo Ogunlesi".
"Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, JD – Page 2 – Nigerian British Awards".
Africa, Ventures. (2019-10-09). "Top 10 Nigerians in Africa Report's 100 most influential Africans".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::