The Talking Picture: The Nigerian Who Bought the London Gatwick Airport

Mr. Adebayo Ogunlesi

Mr. Adebayo Ogunlesi



Mr. Adebayo Ogunlesi


Mr. Ogunlesi was born to the family of Prof. & Mrs. T.O Ogunlesi of Makun, Sagamu Ogun State Nigeria. His father is the first Nigerian professor of medicine. Mr. Ogunlesi attended Kings College Lagos, Nigeria after which he received his B.A. with first class honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from Oxford University, his J.D. magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
Adebayo Ogunlesi is currently Chairman and Managing Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners, a $15 billion joint venture whose initial investors included Credit Suisse and General Electric. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs. Prior to his current role, he was Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of Credit Suisse, based in New York. He previously served as a member of Credit Suisse’s Executive Board and Management Council and chaired the Chairman’s Board. Previously, he was the Global Head of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse. Since joining Credit Suisse in 1983, Mr. Ogunlesi has advised clients on strategic transactions and financings in a broad range of industries and has worked on transactions in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 2009, Global Infrastructure Partners acquired the majority in London Gatwick Airport in a deal worth £1.455 billion.
Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Mr. 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.
Ogunlesi is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. 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.
He is married to an optometrist Dr. Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi. ( Culled from Wikipedia)