Adebayo Ogunlesi Biography

Adebayo Ogunlesi is a Nigerian-born lawyer and investment banker, who is currently Chairman and Managing Partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners. His father, Emeritus Professor Theophilus Ogunlesi was the first Nigerian-born professor of medicine at Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ibadan

Bayo had his secondary school education at King’s College, Lagos, before proceeding to Oxford University in England, where he earned a first-class honor in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. In 1979, he received 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 is the Founder, Chairman & Managing Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a NewYork-Based private equity firm that invests worldwide in infrastructure assets in the energy, transport, water and waste industry sectors. GIP has grown to be one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors and currently manages $74 billion in assets on behalf of its global investor base. The companies in GIP’s equity portfolios have combined annual revenues greater than $45 billion and employ approximately 62,000 people.

Ogunlesi is also the Lead Director at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., where he is the chair of the Governance Committee and he is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Callaway Golf Company, Kosmos Energy Holdings, Terminal Investment Limited, and Freeport LNG.

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.

Major Investments’ by Adebayo Ogunlesi’s Firm – GIPP

London City Airport – 4.8 million passengers per year

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in 2006 bought the London City Airport from Dermot Desmond for £750 million, the Irish financier, who paid £23.5m for it in 1995 from Mowlem, the UK construction group. In 2016, GIP sold the airport to a Canadian-led consortium of pension funds for around £2bn.

London Gatwick Airport

2009, GIP acquired the majority in London Gatwick Airport in a deal worth £1.455 billion

Personal Life

Adebayo Ogunlesi has been married to British-born optometrist, Dr. Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi since 1985.
They have two children (Boys)

Alma Mater: King’s College, Lagos, Oxford University, Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School,

Intellectual

Adebayo Ogunlesi was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Yale School of Management

Breaking Barriers

Adebayo was accepted by Harvard Law School as one of three foreign students in his class, although the school did not usually admit students who had been born and educated outside of the United States at the time.
At Harvard Law School, Adebayo Ogunlesi and W.Randy Eaddy served together as the first two editors of African descent to serve together on the Harvard Law Review.
Served as a clerk to Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. This made him the first non-American ever to clerk at the U.S highest court.

Respected Businessman

In December 2016, Ogunlesi was named among other business leaders to be part of United States President Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, which was disbanded on August 16th, 2017.

GIP’s Industries

Energy and Renewables

ACS Renewables
Borkum Riffgrund 2
Channelview Cogeneration – Natural gas-fired cogeneration facility in Texas
Competitive Power Ventures
East India Petroleum
Empresa Eléctrica Guacolda S.A. – coal-fired generation plant located in the central power grid in Chile
Gode Wind 1 – Gode Wind I is a fully-commissioned offshore wind farm project with turbines in the German North Sea.
Hornsea 1 – Once complete, Hornsea 1 is expected to be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.
Naturgy – Naturgy is one of the largest vertically integrated energy utilities in the world,
Terra-Gen Power
Vena Energy

Transportation

Edinburgh Airport – 14 million passengers per year
Gatwick Airport – 46 million passengers per year
Great Yarmouth – Landlord Port
Italo – Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori S.p.A.
London City Airport – 4.8 million passengers per year
Pacific National – Rail freight infrastructure company in Australia
Port of Brisbane – Australia’s largest diversified container ports
Port of Melbourne – Australasia’s largest maritime hub,
Terminal Investment Limited – World’s sixth-largest global container terminals group,