Amir Abdu, 34

In the 10th grade, Amir Abdu’s class took a personality test to determine which job each student was best suited for. 

“I guess my answers were too balanced or noncommittal, because my test came back with zero job recommendations,” Abdu said and laughed. “My friends got ‘doctor,’ ‘lawyer,’ ‘engineer,’ and I got nothing. I was never overly concerned about a future career until that point.” 

So, Abdu went down the rabbit hole of researching and picking a career for himself, and decided that his dream job was to be an investment banker on Wall Street. He landed internships in Goldman Sachs’ public sector and infrastructure and real estate investment banking groups before joining BGO’s predecessor, GreenOak, in 2015. 

Over the past decade, he’s worked his way up the ladder, becoming managing director of investments at BGO in March 2025. Today, he oversees the firm’s U.S. data center and powered land strategy, which brings him full circle to his first internship (and the career that a personality test could not predict). Further, he’s one of the youngest employees to be promoted to managing director at BGO — for good reason. 

Abdu led the largest investment in BGO’s Core Plus Fund, which also happens to be its  top-performing multifamily asset, with recent renovations resulting in a 50 percent increase in rental income in three years. He’s also leading BGO’s drive to acquire powered land, or sites with committed power loads. Working alongside BGO co-CEO John Carrafiell, Abdu developed a strategy of identifying powered land that can be repositioned for data center development and has an active pipeline of potential opportunities. 

Abdu is also using his well-honed investment acumen to determine when to walk away from deals. Case in point: a cold-storage development project that BGO was working on. When an environmental issue was identified that changed the deal’s risk profile, Abdu recommended the firm exit the deal. 

While Abdu may have lots to thank BGO for, there’s one thing that tops it all. 

“I met the love of my life at BGO,” Abdu said. “We met at one of our holiday parties. She’s an in-house attorney on our legal team. We had our wedding last summer.” 

In his spare time Abdu loves spending time with his wife Estefanía Guillen Abdu and their micro bernedoodle.