Inside the Decorated Career of Nyagaka Ongeri – Son to Kisii Senator Sam Ongeri

While going through school, everyone aspires to achieve greatness, either in the corporate sector, public office or in business.

However, the height of each person’s professional peak will always differ, as people are different. Some make it to the highest possible levels, while others find their comfort in other roles and places.

Nairobileo.co.ke looks at the career, of Nyagaka Ongeri, son to Kisii County Senator Professor Sam Ongeri, who successfully managed to climb to the peak of corporate America.

According to his LinkedIn page, Nyagaka is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ubora Advisorss LLC, a New York-based advisory firm delivering innovative financing, risk, and treasury management solutions to US clients across Africa and the Middle East and enabling financing for African clients in the United States.

He boasts an impressive career, working in finance for over twenty-five years.

Education

Nyagaka attended St. Mary School, Nairobi for his ‘O’ levels, and adds to a long list of prominent people who went through the institution.

He later proceeded to Moi Forces Academy for his “A” levels where he specialized in geography, mathematics and economics.

In 2019, during an interview with US publication Lifestyle, Nyagaka stated that his strong religious background and the defunct 7-4-2-3 education system played a key role in his success.

“My faith has been central in my life through the highs and lows,” he said.

“Don’t undervalue the skill sets you have accrued from learning in Kenya. These, coupled with the experience I had at the firm, gave me the essential skill sets to pursue finance,” Nyagaka narrated.

From Moi Forces, he joined the National Youth Service (NYS) before proceeding to join Kenyatta University later that year. At the time, it was compulsory for students to attend NYS before joining college.

Before he could join KU, Nyagaka got an admission letter from Howard University, USA. He opted to move to the US, as he was moved by the institution’s emphasis on the empowerment of the black community.

“I had these concepts of the US from the media. People were open and didn’t have qualms about speaking their minds. I just wasn’t used to that,” Nyagaka stated.

He performed exceptionally well at the university and was awarded a full scholarship.

Career

While still a student at Howard, Nyagaka got an internship at Maryland Bank National Associates for three months. The entity was, however, later acquired by the Bank of America.

“This was my first introduction to corporate America. It opened my thinking to the idea that I could work on Wall Street,” he narrated.

His dedication, and exceptional work earned an internship at one of the largest banks in the world, JP Morgan in 1991.

“Until then, Howard had taught me how to write a CV, how to dress and what to say. But at JP Morgan, I learned the things that you are not taught in school the business etiquette. For example, I learned how to dress and to show up on time,” he recounted.

While in his final year at the university, Nyagaka applied for jobs at various entities and was at the center of interest from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He picked Meryl Lynch.

Kisii Senator Sam Ongeri

He worked at a financial entity for three years and in January 1996, he joined Havard School of Business.

“Books have been written about surviving the year at Harvard. It is incredibly intense. You are taught to make decisions, stand by them and fight to succeed. Every night we were given assignments which we were required to present in front of colleagues the following morning. These are smart and opinionated. If you are mediocre, you get exposed quickly,” Nyagaka stated.

Upon graduating in 1997 and he was employed by JP Morgan. He was assigned to South Africa, where he worked for the company’s capital markets division, servicing both local and international clients for four years.

Nyagaka departed for Barclays in September 2001. He was the managing director head of financial institutions debt capital markets for a period of seven years.

In July 2009, he relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa as the managing director, head of global finance and risk solutions at Absa Capital, an affiliate of Barclays Capital.

Nyagaka held the role for 2 years, till 2011, before relocating back to New York. He worked as managing director in charge of corporate banking coverage at Barclays until he left in July 2019.

In November 2019, he founded Ubora Advisors LLC.

Nyagaka serves on the US Board of Amref Health Africa, the largest African-based non-profit that delivers health services to over 30 countries on the continent with a vision of lasting health change in Africa.

Family

The 50-year-old is married to Eva, and details of their family still remain unknown to the public.