Biography

Meet Bolaji Balogun, Nigeria’s Lions’ Den star and Chapel Hill Denham CEO

Published

10 months ago

2023/07/14

Bolaji Balogun is the Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham and Chief Investment Officer of the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund.

He is one of the five (5) investors on Nigeria’s Reality TV show, Lions’ Den. His career experience spans investment banking, investment management, and mobile telecommunications.

He graduated with an Economics (Honours) from the London School of Economics, University of London.

Bolaji is the son of the founder of First City Monument Bank(FCMB) – the late Olasubomi Balogun.

He spent eleven years with FCMB Group, in investment banking and securities trading, leaving in January 2001. From April 1993 to January 2001, he was Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at CSL Stockbrokers Limited.

Bolaji was Executive Director at FCMB Capital Markets from January 1996.

He left FCMB Capital Markets in January 2001, to become co-founder and Director at Econet Wireless Nigeria, now Airtel Nigeria.

He led the capital raising and license bid auction process for Econet Wireless Nigeria’s USD285 million GSM license.

He was Chief Business Development and Strategy Officer and was appointed Chief Marketing Officer in October 2001.

The USD1.67 billion sale of Econet Wireless to Celtel in 2005 remains Nigeria’s single largest successfully exited private investment.

Bolaji left mobile communications and returned to investment banking when he founded Chapel Hill in 2005.

Bolaji is Chairman, Lafarge Africa, Vice Chairman of Endeavor Nigeria, a Director at Trustfund Pension, one of Nigeria’s largest pension fund managers, and SME NG, a Nigerian impact investment platform, investing in Nigerian women and youth-owned SMEs.

He was formerly Chairman of Nahco FTZ Limited, and a former Director of Nahco Avaince Plc and NASD Plc. He was appointed to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Africa Advisory Board in September 2009.