Jide Zeitlin Email & Phone Number

My academic and career experiences are more traditional than my personal story. Boarding school, liberal arts college, and then business school, all in America’s Northeast. Followed by 20 years on Wall Street. Each of these experiences was informed by a childhood that began on the African continent. I was born in Nigeria, the son of a single mother—a domestic servant with little formal education. At just shy of five years old, I was adopted by an American family who believed they could help me access a decent education and a whole different life. Growing up, I moved from Nigeria to Pakistan to the Philippines, before landing in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These were fascinating countries to live in during turbulent times: the Biafra war, the Pakistan-India war that birthed Bangladesh, and martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. These experiences had a great impact on me as an individual. They taught me to value and cherish a diversity of opinions and perspectives when making decisions—something we need more of in our lives.