The 2024 Forbes list of the most powerful, impactful, and wealthiest Black Americans includes three Nigerian individuals: Wemimo Abbey, Tope Awotona, and Adebayo Ogunlesi. All three are based in the United States.
Abbey, 32, is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, a New York-based fintech startup. Esusu helps renters build their credit histories and scores by reporting rent payments to credit bureaus. More than 20,000 properties currently offer Esusu’s service, and some 1.8 million Americans have used Esusu to record a rent payment. In early 2022, Esusu raised $130 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation.
Before founding Esusu, Abbey worked as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PWC and co-founded a non-profit and a data analytics startup. Abbey’s Nigerian mother sold her wedding ring to fund his travel and education in the US.Awotona, 43, is the Founder and CEO of Calendly, a scheduling software startup valued at $3 billion in 2021. At the age of 15, Awotona moved to Atlanta from Lagos, where he was born.
Awotona studied computer science at the University of Georgia before switching majors to business and management information. After working as a salesman for several tech firms and launching a few failed startups, Awotona cashed in his 401(k) in 2013 to found Calendly. After bootstrapping the company for several years, in 2021 Awotona raised $350 million to further scale Calendly. Today, he is worth an estimated $1.4 billion.
Adebayo Ogunlesi, 70, is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Global Infrastructure Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. In October, GIP was acquired by BlackRock for $12.5 billion in cash and shares, with Ogunlesi remaining chairman and CEO of GIP.
Today, Forbes estimates Ogunlesi has a net worth of $1.7 billion. Ogunlesi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. After clerking for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the early 1980s, Ogunlesi worked as an attorney at the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Prior to co-founding GIP in 2006, Ogunlesi spent more than 20 years as an investment banker at Credit Suisse.
The Forbes list features the most powerful, impactful, and wealthiest Black Americans. This year’s list includes three Nigerian nationals who have made significant contributions to their respective fields.
Others on the list include Dr. Dre, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Gary Linnen, to mention a few. These individuals have achieved great success in their respective careers and have been recognized for their impact and influence.
Source: https://www.lindaikejisblog.com
