Mr. Lawani, a Nigerian national, is a co-founder and managing partner of Helios Investment Partners and co-CEO and a director of Helios Fairfax Partners Corp (TSX:HFPC). Prior to forming Helios, he was a principal in the San Francisco and London offices of TPG Capital. He began his career as a mergers & acquisitions and corporate development analyst at the Walt Disney Company.
Mr. Lawani serves as a non-executive director of Helios Towers plc., Pershing Square Holdings plc., and NBA Africa. He is a member of the MIT Corporation (Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees), the Harvard Law School Dean’s Advisory Board and the international board of The END Fund, a leader in the global health movement to tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases. He is also a director of the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA).
He previously was a non-executive director of several companies, including Vivo Energy plc., Equity Group Holdings Plc (NSE-NAIROBI:EQTY.NR), First City Monument Bank Plc (NSE:FCMB), and Millicom International Cellular (NASDAQ:TIGO). He also previously served as a board observer on the boards of directors of J. Crew, Inc. and Burger King Corp.
Mr. Lawani has served on the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, the Overseers’ Visiting Committee of the Harvard Business School and the MIT OpenCourseWare Advisory Board.
Mr. Lawani received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (with a Minor in Economics) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is fluent in Yoruba, a widely spoken West African language.