Breaking: Trump sacks Nigeria’s Ogunlesi as adviser

Nigerian born international CEO, Adebayo
Ogunlesi has now ceased to be an adviser to
embattled US President Donald Trump. Trump
sacked him today along with other
distinguished CEOs counselling him via two
councils on how to “Make America Great
Again”.

Trump sacked Ogunlesi on Twitter, when he
announced the dissolution of two business
advisory councils, in one fell swoop.

Ogunlesi was a member of Strategic and
Policy Forum, one of the two disbanded by the
unpredictable president. The other group was
the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative Council.
Ogunlesi, heads Global Infrastructure Partners,
a private equity firm and one of Fortune 500
companies. He was the only African on the
panel.

The New York Times reported before Trump’s
tweeted dissolution, that members of
Ogunlesi’s panel were debating dissolving the
body entirely as Trump wallowed deeper into
bigotry quagmire. But Trump preempted their
move.
“Corporate leaders had hoped that President
Trump would help businesses by slashing
taxes and gutting regulations. It is not clear
how much he will deliver on that score. On top
of that, he is putting many chief executives in
the position of answering for a president with
an unparalleled track record of outraging
people, most recently at a contentious press
conference on Tuesday when he drew a false
equivalence between the white supremacists
who protested in Charlottesville, Va., last
weekend and counter-protesters.”, NYT
reported.
Trump had earned rebuke and isolation from
business leaders for supporting racial bigotry,
White Supremacists and the KKK, following his
remarks that failed to blame the tragic
violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on the

group. Instead, he blamed all the sides and
the group that challenged the racists.
The leaders of three companies — Kenneth
Frazier of Merck, Kevin Plank of Under Armour
and Brian Krzanich of Intel — were the first to
resign from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative
Council.

They resigned on Monday because Mr. Trump
was slow to condemn the white supremacists
during the weekend and blamed “many sides”
for the violence.
When Trump moderated his tone on Monday
by saying “racism is evil” and condemning
neo-Nazis, he did not assuage some of the
CEOs working with him.
Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for
American Manufacturing, an organization
backed by the steel industry and the United
Steelworkers resigned. he was followed on
Tuesday by Richard Trumka and Thea Lee, the
president and deputy chief of staff for the
union group A.F.L.-C.I.O.. The latter’s
resignation followed Trump’s reversed
position at a press conference at Trump Tower
in New York, in which he said that “not all of
those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,”
referring to the white nationalists who were
chanting “Jews will not replace us” as they
marched with tiki-torches.
Ogunlesi’s Strategic Forum, composed some of
America’s most highly respected and
successful business leaders.
Members of the body were expected to meet
with Trump frequently to share their specific
experience and knowledge as the president
implements his plan to bring back jobs and
“Make America Great Again. ”
The other members of the forum were:
Stephen Schwarzman (forum chairman),
chairman, CEO, and cofounder of Blackstone

Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Global Partners,
former commissioner of the Securities and
Exchange Commission
Mary Barra, chairwoman and CEO, General
Motors
Toby Cosgrove, CEO, Cleveland Clinic
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO, JPMorgan
Chase & Co.
Larry Fink, chairman and CEO, BlackRock
Bob Iger, chairman and CEO, The Walt Disney
Company
Rich Lesser, president and CEO, Boston
Consulting Group
Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Wal-Mart
Stores Inc.

Jim McNerney, former chairman, president,
and CEO of Boeings
Ginni Rometty, chairwoman, president, and
CEO of IBM
Kevin Warsh, Shepard Family Distinguished
Visiting Fellow in economics at the Hoover
Institute, former member of the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Mark Weinberger, global chairman and CEO,
EY
Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO, General
Electric
Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize winner, vice
chairman of IHS Markit
Apart from being managing partner of Global
Infrastructure Partners, Ogunlesi also serves
on the boards of Callaway Golf Co. and
Kosmos Energy Ltd.
At the same time he’s the chairman of Africa
Finance Corp. and serves on the boards of
various not-for-profits ranging from New York
Presbyterian Hospital to the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Source: vanguardngr