Adebayo Ogunlesi, a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker, is poised to become a board member of BlackRock, one of the world’s leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions.
It was announced on Friday that BlackRock has agreed to buy Ogunlesi’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for $12.5 billion. Ogunlesi, chairman and managing partner of GIP, oversees $100 billion in client assets spanning infrastructure equity and debt.
He earned the title ‘The man who bought Gatwick Airport’ following GIP’s £1.46 billion investment in London Gatwick, a major international airport near Crawley, Sussex, England, securing majority ownership in the facility.
Ogunlesi, who was born in 1953, started his educational journey at King’s College, Lagos where he received a B.A. with first-class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University in England.
He received a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1979 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, which he pursued at the same time. The Ogun state indigene also served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court, in the early 1980s.
He then navigated the high-stakes world of corporate finance and securities law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, eventually becoming a partner. He later transitioned to investment banking, where he worked at First Boston (now Credit Suisse) and Goldman Sachs.
In 2006, he founded Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm that invests in infrastructure assets, such as airports, seaports, and energy projects. The firm has since grown to become one of the largest infrastructure investment firms in the world, with over $100 billion in assets under management.
In 2016, Donald Trump, former president of the US, appointed Ogunlesi and others as advisers. Ogunlesi’s impact extends beyond the boardroom. He serves on prestigious boards like Goldman Sachs and has been recognised for his business acumen and philanthropic endeavours.
He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and has been named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by New African magazines in 2012.
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