Nigerian-born Adebayo Ogunlesi, who is the chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm and one of Fortune 500 companies, has been named a member of an economic advisory forum to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
The 63 year-old Nigerian is the only African face in the 16-man team, which has Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone as chairman.
“President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced that he is establishing the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum,” said a statement from Blackstone.
“The Forum, which is composed of some of America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders, will be called upon to meet with then president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the president implements his plan to bring back jobs and Make America Great Again,” Blackstone said.
The members of the forum are: Stephen Schwarzman (forum chairman), Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone; Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners, former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Mary Barra, Chairwoman and CEO, General Motors
Others include Toby Cosgrove, CEO, Cleveland Clinic; Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan
Chase & Co.; Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO, BlackRock; Bob Iger, chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney
Company
Trump also appointed Rich Lesser, President and CEO, Boston Consulting Group; Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Wal-MartStores Inc.; Jim McNerney, former chairman, President, and CEO of Boeing; Adebayo, “Bayo” Ogunlesi, Chairman and Managing partner, Global Infrastructure .
For Ogunlesi, the Trump advisory appointment may be a distraction as he has his hands full. Apart from being managing partner of Global Infrastructure, he also serves on the boards of Callaway Golf Co. and Kosmos Energy Ltd.
At the same time he is the chairman of Africa Finance Corporation and serves on the boards of various not-for-profits ranging from New York Presbyterian Hospital to the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund, Inc. Ogunlesi, whose father came from Makun, Sagamu in Ogun, was born in 1953.
His father, T.O. Ogunlesi, was Nigeria’s first Professor of medicine.
After attending Kings College, Lagos, for his secondary education, he received his B.A. with first class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from Oxford University.
He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979 and later got an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ogunlesi had a banking career with Credit Suisse First Boston from 1983 and rose to become its executive vice chairman.
Before joining Credit Suisse, Ogunlesi was an attorney in the corporate practice group of the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
From 1980-81 he served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.
He was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Yale School of Organization and Management, where he taught a course on transnational investment projects in emerging countries, according to Wikipedia.
He is married to an optometrist, Dr. Amelia Quist- Ogunlesi.
His company, Global Infrastructure, managesGatwick Airport in the UK.(NAN)
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