How Adebayo Ogunlesi’s contrarian bet led to $12.5bn BlackRock tie-up

Adebayo Ogunlesi, co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, credits his wife Amelia for a career switch that led on Friday to a $12.5bn deal and a leadership position at BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager. In 2005, Ogunlesi, then a top banker at Credit Suisse, was summoned to Omaha, Nebraska, by the energy arm of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to study a large takeover. It was the kind of call most financiers dream of, but Ogunlesi complained to his wife: “I really don’t want to go.” In an interview with the Financial Times, he said his wife offered an ultimatum: “Either you decide you like your job and you want to keep doing it. Or, if you decide you don’t, go find something else. But please don’t think you can spend the next five years moaning.” After that “kick in the behind”, Ogunlesi quit banking and at the age of 52, decided to try his hand as an investor. Ogunlesi and a handful of colleagues, mostly from Credit Suisse, considered private equity, then near the

Adebayo Ogunlesi, co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, credits his wife Amelia for a career switch that led on Friday to a $12.5bn deal and a leadership position at BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager. In 2005, Ogunlesi, then a top banker at Credit Suisse, was summoned to Omaha, Nebraska, by the energy arm of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to study a large takeover. It was the kind of call most financiers dream of, but Ogunlesi complained to his wife: “I really don’t want to go.” In an interview with the Financial Times, he said his wife offered an ultimatum: “Either you