₦airaland Forum

Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, Chief Executive Officer, Global Infrastructure Partners and Senior Managing Director Blackrock, Mr. Bayo Ogunlesi, President Bola Tinubu, former Managing Director/Chief Executive of UBA, Hakeem Bello-Osagie and Professor Afolabi Ogunlesi during an audience with President Tinubu at his Lagos residence on Monday, September 29, 2025

Adebayo Ogunlesi

Adebayo "Bayo" O. Ogunlesi CON (born 20 December 1953) is a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker. He is currently chairman and managing partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ogunlesi was the former head of global investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston before being promoted to chief client officer and executive vice chairman.

Early life and education

Ogunlesi comes from Makun, Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is the son of 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. At First Boston, he worked in the Project Finance Group, advising clients on transactions and financings and has worked on transactions in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. From 1997 to 2002, he was the Head of the Global Energy Group of the by then renamed Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). In 2002, Ogunlesi was appointed Global Head of CSFB's Investment Banking Division. Also in 2002, he served as a member of Credit Suisse's Executive Board and Management Committee. From 2004 to 2006, Ogunlesi was Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of CSFB.

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. In 2009, GIP acquired a majority stake in London Gatwick Airport in a deal worth £1.455 billion. The Nigerian press has given him the nickname, "The Man Who Bought Gatwick Airport." GIP also owns Edinburgh Airport, which they bought in 2012, 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, where he taught a course on transnational investment projects in emerging countries.

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.

naptu2:
Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie attended Edo College, Benin, King's College, Lagos, Howard University and McGill University. He was appointed a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist on his return to Nigeria and he worked at Island Maternity, General Hospital and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital all in Lagos.


Osagie Medical Centre

Professor Belo-Osagie established the Osagie Medical Centre at number 30, Catholic Mission Street, Lagos Island in the 1960s (that's where he delivered my brother ). There are interesting connections between the last post (about Dr Majekodunmi), this post and the next post. The Osagie Medical Centre is right beside St Nicholas Hospital (which was established by Dr Majekodunmi) and Professor Belo-Osgie's daughter-in-law works there. Professor Belo-Osagie is also the uncle of the famous Professor Osato Giwa-Osagie, who also worked at the Osagie Medical Centre at a point in time.



University of Benin Teaching Hospital

He moved to Benin in the 1970s and established the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. He worked (at various times) as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Provost of the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin between 1972 and 1979.

Dodan Barracks

He served as the personal physician to the president in the 1980s. In this position he was involved in the births of Saudatu Shehu Shagari in 1981 and Halima Babangida in 1989.

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie returned to the Osagie Medical Centre in the 1990s where he was in high demand.


Away from the medical world, he also served as the chairman of Societe General Bank and was on the board of many companies. He was the father of Hakeem Belo-Osagie who is a former chairman of UBA (Keem Belo-Osagie started out as a special assistant to President Shagari). He recieved the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 1982.

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie died in March 2005.

Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a Nigerian businessman. He is chair of Metis Capital Partners an organisation focused on brokering and delivering attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners.He was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014.


Belo-Osagie and his wife, Dr Myma Belo-Osagie (a founding partner of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie), are philanthropists. The couple are also supporters of Harvard University's Center for African Studies, and Belo-Osagie has established a scholarship to support African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

Belo-Osagie and his wife are both members of Harvard University's Global Advisory Council. Belo-Osagie also serves on the Yale University President's Council on International Activities and the New York University President's Global Council. In addition, Belo-Osagie sits on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution and the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the "ALA" ), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa's brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing", named in recognition of the couple's support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.

Personal life and education

Belo-Osagie was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1955. His father was a professional gynaecologist and his mother was a nurse. He is the father of Yasmin Belo-Osagie. He attended King's College in Lagos and completed his secondary education at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales.

Career

Oil industry

Belo-Osagie returned to Nigeria shortly after graduating from Harvard in 1980. He began his career in the service of the Federal Government of Nigeria working in various capacities in the energy sector ranging from Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on petroleum and energy, to Secretary of the Oil Policy Review and LNG Committees. He subsequently worked in the Petrochemicals Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He resigned his appointment in 1986 to set up CTIC, which became a leading energy consulting firm. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

Telecommunications and other recent ventures

Belo-Osagie until recently, was the chairman of the board of directors of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, a mobile telephone operator which operates in Nigeria under the Etisalat brand. He is the ultimate beneficial owner of a significant stake in the company, which is operated as a joint venture with Mubadala Development Company and the Etisalat group.

Belo-Osagie is the chairman of and main shareholder in Duval Properties Limited, a real estate company currently engaged in developing a major new residential and commercial district at Jabi Lake in Abuja. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

Belo-Osagie has also recently invested in Andela, which is developing a network of high quality computer science education programmes across the African continent. Andela operates a self-financing model of education: it funds the training of promising young programmers, and generates revenue by supplying its graduates' services to a range of global clients.

Philanthropy

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the "ALA" ), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa's brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing", named in recognition of the couple's support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.

The couple have recently established the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Fund for the Promotion of Africa" at Yale University, and are supporters of Harvard University's Center for African Studies. Belo-Osagie has also endowed a fund to provide scholarships for African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

Belo-Osagie serves on the board of Alfanar, a charity which applies the principles of private sector investment to charitable giving to help build sustainable social enterprises throughout the Arab world. He also chairs the Nigerian National Committee for the United World Colleges, which assists the organisation's member colleges in identifying suitable candidates for their two-year International Baccalaureate scholarship programmes. Mr Belo-Osagie has also funded several scholarships to the United World Colleges.

madridguy:
While Mr-Nannuu is in the USA begging people to take photo with them, the billionaires in the USA are in Nigeria to meet with who matters in the scheme of things.

The Yes-daddy followers are on the SM applauding the useless trips of their lamba master.

LagosOrigin:
Why did tinubu sent shetima to represent Nigeria at UNGA in United States instead of going there himself , fear of United States president Donald Trump?

All the world leaders Donald Trump, Manuel macron, Israel president and slayer of Muslim terrorists, Germany leader, south Africa leader and leaders of the world power nations were present except tinubu. I trust he really woulda love to be there in person but the fear of Donald Trump kicked in.

madridguy:
We Nigerians voted for Asiwaju Tinubu and Alhaji Shettima. Asiwaju stays in Nigeria to attend to the coronation program of Olubadan.

LagosOrigin:
Why did tinubu sent shetima to represent Nigeria at UNGA in United States instead of going there himself , fear of United States president Donald Trump?

All the world leaders Donald Trump, Manuel macron, Israel president and slayer of Muslim terrorists, Germany leader, south Africa leader and leaders of the world power nations were present except tinubu. I trust he really woulda love to be there in person but the fear of Donald Trump kicked in.

Exousiang01:
Egbon naptu2 thank you so much for this thread.
You always have a way of helping us wake up to reading something good.

naptu2:
Bayo Onanuga @aonanuga1956



">https://x.com/aonanuga1956/status/1972779093998653940?[/quote] the money man, not those audio billionaires that makes so much noise on SM

helinues:
The men, the movers, the Shakers. Something must be cooking

madridguy:
We Nigerians voted for Asiwaju Tinubu and Alhaji Shettima. Asiwaju stays in Nigeria to attend to the coronation program of Olubadan.

Exousiang01:
Egbon naptu2 thank you so much for this thread.
You always have a way of helping us wake up to reading something good.

naptu2:
Bayo Onanuga @aonanuga1956



https://x.com/aonanuga1956/status/1972779093998653940?[/quote]The brilliant technocrats of modern Nigeria and the Nigerian Diaspora hanging out together for business and more.

LagosOrigin:
Why did tinubu sent shetima to represent Nigeria at UNGA in United States instead of going there himself , fear of United States president Donald Trump?

All the world leaders Donald Trump, Manuel macron, Israel president and slayer of Muslim terrorists, Germany leader, south Africa leader and leaders of the world power nations were present except tinubu. I trust he really woulda love to be there in person but the fear of Donald Trump kicked in.

HEAVEN4444:
ewa aganyin 👀 that’s what is cooking. Hmmmmmmmmmmm

ElSudani:
Macron was left stranded in NY, imagine the kind of noise folks like you would have made if that was Tinubu. The whole social media would have gone up in flames by now with the most twisted kind of conspiracy theories.

Exousiang01:
Egbon naptu2 thank you so much for this thread.
You always have a way of helping us wake up to reading something good.