This Nigerian

This Nigerian billionaire bought Gatwick Airport and quietly became one of the most powerful deal makers in global finance. Meet Adebayo Ogunlesi. Adebayo grew up in Ogun State, Nigeria. He attended King's College Lagos before moving to the UK to study at Oxford University. Then he moved and earned both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard. He even became the first non-American law clerk for the US Supreme Court. But instead of staying in law... investment banking. In 1973, he joined Credit Suisse and spent more than 20 years there, eventually becoming the global head of investment banking. But his real edge came in 2006. He co-founded Global Infrastructure Partners, a firm built around a simple but powerful buy neglected infrastructure like airports and railways, fix them, then sell them at a massive premium. GIP's first purchase? London City Airport. Then came the Gatwick Airport deal in a £1.5 billion takeover that shocked the UK market. After that, Edinburgh Airport, Italy's high-speed rail network and infrastructure across energy and telecoms. Buy overlooked assets, upgrade them, unlock value. That playbook grew GIP into a $100 plus billion infrastructure giant. In 2024, BlackRock bought GIP for $12.5 billion. Today, Adebayo Ogunlesi is worth $2 billion and is one of the most influential businessmen in global finance.