The 40-year-old attorney who runs one of Africa’s most successful law conglomerates.

NJ Ayuk is founder and CEO of Pan-African corporate law conglomerate, Centurion Law Group; Founder and Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber; and author of Billions at Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals and co-author of Big Barrels: African Oil and Gas and the Quest for Prosperity. He is recognized as one of the foremost figures in African business today.

A Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum, one of Forbes’ Top 10 Most Influential Men in Africa in 2015, and a well-known dealmaker in the petroleum and power sectors, NJ is dedicating his career to helping entrepreneurs find success and to building the careers of young African lawyers. NJ strives through his work to ensure that business, and especially oil and gas, impacts African societies in a positive way and drives local content development. NJ graduated from the University of Maryland College Park and earned a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law and an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology.