Goldman Names Bayo Ogunlesi to Its Board

Goldman Sachs announced an addition to its board late Monday, appointing Adebayo O. Ogunlesi as an independent director of the bank.

Mr. Ogunlesi is a well-known name on Wall Street, having run the investment bank at Credit Suisse in the last decade. Since 2006, he has run Global Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm that invests in infrastructure deals like energy projects and water companies. The firm, one of the world's largest, focused exclusively on infrastructure, announced earlier this month that it had raised $8.25 billion for its most recent fund.

“Adebayo brings extensive experience in finance and the global capital markets to our board of directors,” Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman, said in a statement. “Our board and our shareholders will benefit from Adebayo's wealth of knowledge and rigorous thinking.”

Goldman's board has seen its fair share of movement in recent months. In April, Goldman lost one of its three female board members when Lois D. Juliber, a former senior executive at Colgate-Palmolive, did not stand for re-election citing increased time commitments elsewhere. John H. Bryan, the former chief executive of Sara Lee, also stepped down in May as a result of Goldman's retirement policy, the firm said in a statement.

Last month, the bank announced that David Viniar, its longtime chief financial officer, would step down at the end of the year and, upon his retirement, become a director.

Goldman's board has also received some unwanted attention this year. The former Goldman director Rajat K. Gupta was convicted in May of leaking secret boardroom discussions to his friend Raj Rajaratnam, the former hedge fund manager serving an 11-year prison term for insider trading. Mr. Gupta's sentencing is set for next week.

Mr. Ogunlesi, known as “Bayo,” is a native of Nigeria. He graduated from Oxford University and received law and business degrees from Harv ard University. He served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court and then practiced law for two years at Cravath, Swaine & Moore before pursuing a career on Wall Street.

In a 2002 New York Times profile, Mr. Ogunlesi, said that he never fit the mold of a typical investment banker. ”I don't wear suspenders, and when I had hair, I didn't slick it back,” he said.