Wale Adeosun

Founder & CEO at Kuramo Capital Management

Speaker

Wale Adeosun, CFA, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kuramo Capital Management (Kuramo). Kuramo is an independent private investment firm driving catalytic commercial capital to fast growing African businesses to generate attractive returns and positively impact local communities. To date, Kuramo Capital has catalyzed over $3.5 billion to sub-Saharan African businesses.

Kuramo has offices in Lagos, Nigeria, Nairobi, Kenya and New York City and it is the General Partner of the $500 million Kuramo Africa Opportunity Funds (KAOF) with commitments from leading US endowments, foundations and pension plans including the largest pension fund in Africa. Kuramo has direct and indirect investments in over 200 companies in 30 sub-Saharan Africa countries in sectors such as Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Infrastructure, Agribusiness, Healthcare, Technology and Financial Services.

Wale serves on the Boards of several portfolio companies, including the Nigeria Higher Education Foundation (NHEF), a foundation based in New York City, created by the MacArthur Foundation in 2004 and supported by Kuramo to assist Nigerian Universities in preparing the next generation of global leaders. He was the Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee of the $280 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. In 2014, he was appointed to serve on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA).

Prior to founding Kuramo, Wale Adeosun was Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he managed $1 billion in endowment and pension assets. Prior to RPI, he was a Managing Director in the Investments Group of the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago with oversight of $2 billion in U.S. equities and hedge fund investments.

Wale completed his BA in Economics and Business Administration at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he serves as a Board Trustee. He received his MBA from John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri with a concentration in Finance. He was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1995 and he is a member of the CFA Institute. He was inducted into the New York Chapter of the National Association of Security Professionals Wall Street Hall of Fame in 2008.