Bakari Akil

No college. No cash. No clout. Bakari Akil bought companies anyway.

As Managing Director of Graves Hall Capital, a private equity firm he founded to acquire businesses, he has completed several transactions in the lower middle market — including the acquisition of a $30M burlap bag manufacturer in partnership with a private equity firm and a $25M educational technology company with a family office. He leads M&A across domestic and international operations and holds a board seat at NYP Corporation.

Now a visiting lecturer at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, he teaches MBA candidates how to buy businesses. He has spoken on acquisition entrepreneurship across five continents — from the Middle East to Sub-Saharan Africa to Western Europe — part of a restless curiosity that has taken him to more than 30 countries and all seven Wonders of the World. He founded the Alternative Investment Club of New York City, one of the largest private equity and hedge fund networking groups in the city, which was profiled in The Wall Street Journal.

He did all of this without a degree. After dropping out of college, he audited courses at Columbia Business School and Yale, then went out and bought his first company. Five years of failed deals came before the first one closed. He now teaches that same discipline at Cornell.

He has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and on Built to Sell Radio, Beyond 8 Figures, Acquiring Minds, M&A Masters, and Search Funded. His forthcoming memoir, Paper Ceiling: Acquiring Companies Without College, Cash, or Clout, is represented by McKinnon Literary.

TOPICS: Finance, Economics