Amy Jadesimi


Amy Jadesimi is a Nigerian businesswoman and the chief executive officer of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base, a privately owned logistics and engineering facility in the Port of Lagos, Nigeria.

Background and education

She was born in Nigeria in 1976. Her father is Chief Oladipo Jadesimi, the executive chairman of LADOL. Her mother, Alero Okotie-Eboh, was a former broadcaster who became a full-time homemaker. Her maternal grandfather, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was a politician who became the Nigerian Minister of Finance.
Jadesimi was educated at Benenden School in the United Kingdom, then at the University of Oxford, where she graduated BA in Physiological Sciences and BMBCh in medicine in 1999. Later, she gained an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Jadesimi is a half-sister of Emma McQuiston, a fashion model who is now by marriage Marchioness of Bath.

Career

After medical school, she was recruited by Goldman Sachs. She started work in the Investment Banking division of the firm, based in their offices in London, focusing on mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. She worked there for three years. Even though Jadesimi is better known as a businesswoman, she never intended to leave the medical field and pursue another career. She was offered a job by Goldman Sachs while working with a firm in Oxford. After working there for three years, she never went back to the hospital or her previous job and instead went on to pursue an MBA at Stanford.
Following graduation from Stanford University, she interned for one year at in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked in the private equity division, as a transaction executive. In 2004, she relocated back to her homeland and joined LADOL, the logistics firm that her father started in 2001. Over time, she rose through the ranks and in 2009, she was appointed by the board as the Chief Executive Officer of the business. Through LADOL, Jadesimi joined the Venture Strategies for Health and Development organization where she works with others Nigerian doctors and birth attendants to reduce the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria. Upon addressing the many cases, Jadesimi and other practitioners noticed that the drugs used to help reduce the maternal mortality were expensive; therefore, not many pregnant women could afford them. The VSHD came up with a drug that was well suited for maternal mortality and was better for the market. Under Jadesimi's supervision, the organization partnered with a leading pharmaceutical company in Nigeria, Emzor Pharmaceuticals, to distribute the drugs through Nigeria. Beyond LADOL, she is on the Prince's Trust International global advisory board, a founding commissioner of the Business and Sustainable Development and Commission and a Forbes contributor.
Featured as a guest panelist at the London Business School African summit, speaking on integration and growth on the continent, parallel to the events Jadesimi took part initialing an art collaboration piece called Remember To Rise.

Honors and awards

In 2012, Jadesimi was named an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow. In 2013, she was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Also that year she was given the title of Rising Talent by the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society. Forbes included her in the 2014 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa article. The Financial Times named her one of the top 25 Africans To Watch.