Martin Hughes Nesbitt (born November 29, 1962) is an American businessman and public figure. Nesbit is co-CEO of the Vistria Group, a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm. Nesbitt is on the boards of directors of publicly traded companies

CenterPoint Energy CenterPoint Energy, Inc. is an American utility company based in Houston, Texas, that provides electric and natural gas utility to customers in several markets in the American states of Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Tex ...

Norfolk Southern Corporation The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

, and

American Airlines Group American Airlines Group Inc. is an American publicly traded airline holding company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It was formed on December 9, 2013, by the merger of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, and US Airway ...

. Nesbitt was the founder and former CEO of The Parking Spot, an airport parking company. He was on the board of the

Chicago Housing Authority The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is a municipal corporation that oversees public housing within the city of Chicago. The agency's Board of Commissioners is appointed by the Mayor of Chicago, city's mayor, and has a budget independent from that ...

. Nesbitt is a close personal friend of former

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and was the campaign treasurer during Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He is the board chair of the

Obama Foundation The Barack Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. It oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program Barack Obama began while he was president) ...

Early life and education

Nesbitt was born and raised in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, graduating from

Columbus Academy Columbus Academy (CA) is an independent college- preparatory school for students from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. The school is located on a large, secluded campus surrounded by wooded areas in Gahanna, Ohio, in the United States, 8 miles ...

. He went on to earn his bachelor's degree from

Albion College Albion College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students as of Fall 2021 ...

Albion, Michigan Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,700 at the 2020 census. Albion is part of the Battle Creek Metropolitan Statistical Area. The earliest ...

, in 1985. After working as a financial analyst at GMAC, he won a fellowship to study at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, where he earned an MBA in 1991.

Business career

From 1996 to 1998, he worked as a vice president of Pritzker Realty group and in 1998, he founded The Parking Spot along with investor

Penny Pritzker Penny Sue Pritzker (born May 2, 1959) is an American billionaire heiress, businesswoman and lawyer who served as the 38th United States secretary of commerce in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. She was confirmed by a Senate vote of 97 ...

. The Parking Spot offers airport parking services primarily for business travelers. In 2013, he co-founded The Vistria Group, a

firm, with Chicago businessman Kip Kirkpatrick. Both Nesbitt and Kirkpatrick are on the board of Rush University Medical Center. Along with a series of other funds, The Vistria Group acquired Apollo Education Group, one of the world's largest private education providers, in 2017, and the parent company of

University of Phoenix University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the Ac ...

. The firm has over $3.1 billion in

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

from institutional investors like public retirement plans, corporations, endowments or foundations, high net-worth families, non-U.S. investors and financial institutions. Nesbitt is on the board of

, a natural gas and electric company.

Relationship with Barack Obama

Nesbitt met Barack and

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

through Michelle Obama's brother Craig Robinson who was a high school basketball coach. He supported Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate bid and was the treasurer on his 2008 presidential campaign. As of 2014, Nesbitt was on the foundation planning board for the home of the future Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nesbitt, Martin 1962 births Albion College alumni African-American businesspeople Living people University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people