The 2024 ForbesBLK 50 list, which honors the accomplishments of the wealthiest and most powerful Black Americans, was released by Forbes.
The new list emphasizes leadership across a range of businesses, innovation, and societal impact in addition to economic worth, which is still a key metric.
Three Nigerians, Adebayo Ogunlesi ($1.7 billion), Tope Awotona ($1.4 billion), and Wemimo Abbey, are among the honorees; their innovative work and business achievements have placed them on this esteemed list.
Wemimo Abbey
Abbey is a cofounder and co-CEO of Esusu, a fintech firm based in New York that reports rent payments to credit bureaus in order to assist tenants in improving their credit histories and ratings. Esusu’s service is currently available at over 20,000 residences, and around 1.8 million Americans have recorded a rent payment using Esusu.
Additionally, the business just introduced MyEsusu, a direct-to-consumer application that allows users to monitor their credit ratings and establish credit. At a $1 billion value, Esusu raised $130 million in investment at the beginning of 2022. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Abbey worked as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PWC before starting Esusu. She also cofounded a data analytics firm and a non-profit.
Tope Awotona
Calendly, a scheduling software firm valued at $3 billion by private investors in 2021, was founded and is led by Awotona. Awotona, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, relocated to Atlanta when he was fifteen years old. He attended the University of Georgia to study computer technology before deciding to specialize in business and management information.
Awotona founded Calendly in 2013 after working as a salesman for multiple software companies and starting a few unsuccessful startups. He was annoyed with the amount of emails needed to set up meetings, so he cashed in his 401(k) to start the company.
Following years of operating Calendly entirely on their own, Awotona raised $350 million in 2021 to expand the business. He is thought to be worth $1.4 billion now.
Adebayo Ogunlesi
Ogunlesi, a Nigerian native who is currently a citizen of the United States, is a cofounder of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a private equity firm based in New York. Ogunlesi remained GIP’s chairman and CEO after the company was purchased by BlackRock in October for $12.5 billion in cash and stock.
Ogunlesi, who graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts, Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor, and Harvard Business School with an MBA, is estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.7 billion.
In the early 1980s, Ogunlesi worked as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court before becoming an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. Ogunlesi worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse for more than 20 years until cofounding GIP in 2006.
List of most powerful African women in 2024
Legit reported that Globally, women still encounter obstacles that hinder their ability to attain and hold onto power.
However, a select handful are breaking barriers in politics, entertainment, and business to emerge as some of the most powerful people influencing the modern world.
Five African women have earned their spots on Forbes’ 2024 list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, which includes these changemakers.
