Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, JD

Adebayo O. Ogunlesi, JD (born December 20, 1953) is a Nigerian-born 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
Adebayo Ogunlesi hails from Makun, Shagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is the son of Theophilus O. Ogunlesi, first Nigerian professor of medicine at University of Ibadan. His family is of Yoruba origin.
Ogunlesi attended King’s College, Lagos for his secondary school and went on to Oxford University (UK) in 1979 where he obtained a B.A. with first class honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Following his time at Oxford he progressed on to the United States and went on to receive a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, which he pursued at the same time.
Adebayo served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court from 1980 to 1981. He was also 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 also worked on transactions in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He was appointed the Head of the Global Energy Group of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in 1997 a role he played till 2002. In 2002, Ogunlesi was appointed Global Head of CSFB’s Investment Banking Division and in that same year he was appointed to serve as a member of Credit Suisse’s Executive Board and Management Committee. Ogunlesi was appointed Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of CSFB in 2004
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.