- Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes has revealed that she started her investment banking career at Lehman Brothers at the age of 18 before joining J.P. Morgan at 20.
- The billionaire businesswoman said her experience in private equity, particularly an investment in a Ugandan pharmaceutical company, inspired her passion for impact investing across Africa.
Nigerian billionaire businesswoman and investor Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes has opened up about her journey into finance, revealing that she began her investment banking career at just 18 years old and has spent nearly two decades building expertise in the industry.
Speaking on a podcast that has gone viral on social media, Rhodes said her passion for finance started at a young age and eventually led her into private equity and impact investing across Africa.
According to her, she has spent the last 16 to 17 years working in investment banking and private equity.
“I had always been interested in finance,” she said, revealing that her first investment banking role was at Lehman Brothers when she was just 18 years old.
By the age of 20, she had moved to J.P. Morgan, where she worked in mergers and acquisitions as well as leveraged finance, gaining valuable experience in the global financial sector.
Rhodes explained that her interest in finance continued to grow before she eventually transitioned into private equity, where her perspective on investing changed significantly.
She recalled that one of the most defining moments of her career came while working on an investment in Uganda involving a company that manufactured antiretroviral and anti-malaria drugs locally.
According to her, the investment delivered strong financial returns while also improving access to life-saving medicines, showing that businesses can generate profits and create meaningful social impact at the same time.
The experience, she said, introduced her to impact investing and reinforced her belief that investors can achieve commercial success while contributing to positive change across Africa.
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