Saheedat Onifade understands frequent flier miles.
Over the past few months, she’s jetted out from her home in New York to California (multiple times), Japan, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, and South Africa.
As an investment strategist for Churchill Asset Management, Onifade BBA ’14 raises capital for the investment management firm’s private equity and junior capital funds in Asia, Australia, and the western U.S.
She deals in billions of dollars. It’s the type of work that requires an in-person touch.
“My company either really likes how I do my job or they want me to be really far away,” Onifade quips.
The truth is certainly the former. And it’s not just her company that’s impressed.
In 2023, Onifade received a Black Women in Asset Management 40 Under 40 Award, an international honor. This year, Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30 list for finance. The Forbes honor is a notable, multidisciplinary collection that puts Onifade in the company of famous faces like Gracie Abrams (music), Sha’Carri Richardson (sports), Kendall Jenner (art & style), and many others.
[Terry Ambassadors] was a fantastic program. The peer mentorship was a tremendous growth opportunity.” — Saheedat Onifade investment strategist for Churchill Asset Management
It can be heady stuff for the unprepared, but Onifade never is.
Onifade, the youngest of five children, was born in Chicago to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos. One of her older brothers graduated from Georgia Tech, another from Georgia State. So when Onifade was considering U.S. universities, she was drawn to Georgia.
She graduated high school at just 16 and came to UGA.
“I was probably the youngest in my classes in a lot of cases,” she says. “But I think I’ve always been very focused in my life and my career. College wasn’t that big of a challenge for me, at least from an educational perspective. The challenge was more from a people perspective.”
When she entered the Terry College of Business, Onifade got involved in every project she could. The most meaningful was as a Terry Ambassador. Ambassadors engage with students and alumni to promote community in the college. As an ambassador, Onifade perfected the soft skills of conversation, networking, and camaraderie that she continues to use every day.
“That was a fantastic program,” she says. “The peer mentorship was a tremendous growth opportunity.”
As Onifade honed her networking prowess, she also shined on the academic side as a member of the Blue Key National Honor Society and Terry’s prestigious Deer Run Fellows program. She was president of the Honors Student Organization and a Presidential Scholar, and she earned a UGA Academic Award of Excellence.
Onifade graduated from Terry two months after her 20th birthday and embarked on her next big adventure.
She found it in New York’s financial world, taking a job with Goldman Sachs. Positions at KKR and then Nuveen—parent company to Churchill—followed.
She began her current role at Churchill in August 2023 and quickly made an impression.
“I’ve been on the banking side, I’ve been on the investment side, I’ve been on the capital markets side, and now I’m in the capital formation,” Onifade says. “I’ve been very lucky and grateful to have moved very quickly in my career. But I spend too much time on the fly.”
