Lai is a lawyer and political economist, working with senior government officials, development finance institutions and major corporates in the areas of economic policy reform, infrastructure development and energy transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He is currently an advisor to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari and advised Raila Odinga, in his role as African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development.

Lai was previously Team Leader of the Senior Advisors’ Group of President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative, working with a group of former Heads of State (led by Tony Blair and Olusegun Obasanjo) and industry leaders, to provide advice to serving government leaders on how best to design, finance and deliver major energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was also Team Leader of the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform (FOSTER), an FCDO-funded initiative designed to support the restructuring of the oil and gas sector and to increase transparency and accountability in oil sector governance in Nigeria.

He originally qualified as an attorney with the New York law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, working on major international project finance and securitisation transactions and was a qualified solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. He received his BA(Hons) and MA from Balliol College, Oxford University and MSc in Business Economics.

Lai is a Yale World Fellow, Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow and was selected as one of the “New Leaders for Tomorrow” by the Crans Montana Forum and one of the “25 Africans to Watch” by the Financial Times. He sits on the Board of the African Leadership Institute and is a member of the ONE Africa Policy Advisory Board.