Olaperi “Peri” Onipede, MBA

In 2022, Peri launched Partners in Philanthropy LLC, a philanthropic and governance advisory firm that provides services to organizations in the climate, environment, and sustainability ecosystems.

Peri’s initial career was in financial services, where she worked at several major Boston banks, managing a portfolio of significant risk assets in both domestic and foreign markets. During this time, she negotiated several multi-billion-dollar syndicated debt transactions and developed a specialty in financing technology companies. Peri’s international assignments allowed her to travel the world, including overseeing business dealings in Africa, Europe, Latin America, Turkey, and the United States. After two decades of banking, Peri pivoted into academic fundraising, securing philanthropic resources for priority needs at four renowned Boston-area universities.

Personally and professionally, Peri has always looked for ways to pay it forward. Her careers in both financial services and academic philanthropy have relied on her ability to build trusting relationships, and as a result, Peri has become an advisor to people from all walks of life who appreciate her integrity, knowledge, and sound judgment.

Peri served eighteen years on the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Bentley University, and is now a Trustee Emerita. Additionally, she served ten years on the Board of Advisors of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where she is now an honorary lifetime advisor. Her other governance experience with Boston’s arts and cultural organizations includes Boston Ballet, Huntington Theatre, Institute for Contemporary Art, and WGBH.

Peri graduated with a BS in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University and subsequently went on to get an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As a child in Lagos, Nigeria, Peri grew up in a highly diverse intercultural environment that taught her how people from many different religions, tribes, ethnicities, languages, and nationalities can thrive living side-by-side. At age fifteen, she traveled with just two pieces of luggage in the dead of winter to attend college in the Boston area. Given her earliest life experience, Peri has been fortunate to continue evolving as a global citizen through experiential learning in many different parts of the world.