Michael Olayemi Cardoso holds a Bachelors degree in Finance and Accounting from The University of Aston in Birmingham, UK, and a Masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, USA. He is a Mason Fellow of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the recipient of the Michael Roemer schorlarship award from Harvard University. He is also a graduate of Georgetown’s Leadership Seminar (GLS).
His work experience commenced in the City of London with Howard Tilley and Co, Chartered Accountants. This led him on to an 18 year banking career, a good part of which was with Chase Bank as well as Citibank locations in London, Athens, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. He left Citibank as Vice President to co-found Citizens International Bank Ltd where he held the Executive Director position for seven years. In 1977, he set up a brokerage company, FBC Trust and Securities Ltd and held the position of Chairman/CEO until 1999 when he was approached by the Lagos State Government to join the cabinet as a technocrat. He was appointed the first Honourable Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget of Lagos State, the economic hub of Nigeria, the most populous black nation. In this capacity, he championed the reform process and pioneered/instituted state of the art analytic and consultative mechanisms for improving governance as well as creating international awareness of the challenges of managing the sixth largest mega city. He managed an over 300-person Ministry including 2 Permanent Secretaries and chaired no less than 10 cabinet committees.
He was appointed State Coordinator for the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD). As State Co-ordinator for NEPAD, Mr. Cardoso hosted the first “7 African Sustainable Cities Program.” It was in recognition of his efforts that he was appointed to an unprecedented second term position in year 2003 and remained a Cabinet member until June 2005 when he voluntarily relinquished his position and returned to private life.
Since leaving Government, Mr. Cardoso consults on developmental and capital market matters and has forged working alliances with World Bank, DFID, Ford Foundation, United Nations, Habitat etc. Apart from being Chairman of Citigroups Board Audit Committee, he also sits on the Board of Chevron Oil. In recognition of his leadership role in both the public and private sectors, he was recently appointed Chairman of the US$200 million World Bank Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project (LMDGP). LMDGP represents the largest credit supported program ever granted a sub national government by the World Bank.
He has several awards and publications to his credit and is married with children.
