Marc Jahr

Mr. Jahr was appointed President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation (“HDC”) in December, 2007.  Prior to joining the Corporation, Mr. Jahr was Citi Community Capital’s New York Metropolitan Area Market Director.  At Citibank, he supervised its community development real estate lending group and was responsible for its affordable rental housing and home ownership lending programs in the metropolitan New York area.  In 2007, his group originated over $900MM in loans and letters of credit.  Before joining Citibank, Mr. Jahr held various senior positions at Local Initiatives Support Corporation including New York Equity Fund Manager, New York City Program Director and Program Vice President.  He also served in several positions at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”) including Director of its Multi-Family Housing Unit, as well as Deputy Director of HPD’s Small Homes Unit.  Mr. Jahr also served as Director of the Neighborhood Housing Services Program of East Flatbush and the New York City Commission on Human Rights East Flatbush Neighborhood Stabilization Program.  Mr. Jahr is a graduate of the New School College. He also served as a VISTA volunteer in Scranton, PA and Shungnak, AK.  While at Citi, he sat on the boards of several not-for-profit corporations including the Settlement Housing Fund, NHS CDC, the NYC Housing Partnership CDC, the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, Neighborhood Restore and The Brooklyn Historical Society.
Speaker At: The Business Behind Developing Underserved Communities

Majora Carter

Majora Carter simultaneously addresses public health, poverty alleviation, and climate change as one of the nation’s pioneers in successful green-collar job training and placement systems. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 to achieve environmental justice through economically sustainable projects informed by community needs. Her work has garnered numerous awards and accolades including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, one of Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African-Americans in 2007, and one of the NY Post’s Most Influential NYC Women for the past two years. She is a board member of the Wilderness Society, SJF, and CERES; and hosts a special national public radio series called “The Promised Land” (http://www.thepromisedland.org/). Her work now includes advising cities, foundations, universities, businesses, and communities around the world on unlocking their green-collar economic potential to benefit everyone as President of the Majora Carter Group, LLC.

Speaker At: The Business Behind Developing Underserved Communities

Tarrus Richardson

Mr. Richardson is Co-founder and Managing Director of ICV Capital Partners, LLC (ICV).  ICV is a New York based minority-owned private investment firm with over $440 million of committed capital, principally focused on making investments in smaller middle-market companies with revenues of $20 – $150 million.  ICV currently owns: Spirit and Odyssey Cruises, a $100 million dinner cruise business; Marshall Retail Group, a $100 million gift store and retail apparel business; Press-A-Print, a $20 million printing equipment business and The PFM Group, a $100 million financial advisory and money management firm with $35 billion of assets under management.

Prior to ICV, Mr. Richardson was an investment professional at Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, Inc, a private equity fund with more than $1.6 billion under management.  Prior to JLL, Mr. Richardson was a Co-founder of Gold Coast Securities, an investment bank in Ghana, and was in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Salomon Smith Barney.

Mr. Richardson currently serves on the Board of Directors of Entertainment Cruises, The PFM Group, the Robert A. Toigo Foundation, the Council of Urban Professionals and the Purdue Black Alumni Organization.  He previously served as the CEO of Chung’s Gourmet Foods, a $25 million Asian food company, and on the boards of AAMP of America, Marshall Retail Group and Sterling Foods.

Mr. Richardson holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting from Purdue University, where he was the first African American Student Body President and a member and Guy L. Grant National Awardee of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where he was a Robert A. Toigo Fellow.
Speaker At: The Business Behind Developing Underserved Communities

Benjamin Kennedy

Benjamin currently serves as Special Assistant to the President for Innovative Capital at The Kresge Foundation. He is responsible for originating and structuring program-related investments that support and advance the mission of the Foundation. The Kresge Foundation is a $2.8 billion private, national foundation, based in Troy, Michigan, that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations through its support of nonprofit organizations in six fields: health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services, and community development. Prior to joining the Kresge Foundation, Benjamin worked at JP Morgan Chase in Johannesburg as an associate on their sub-Saharan African Mergers & Acquisitions team. Benjamin also spent time as an Economic and Political Analyst within IHS Global Insight’s sub-Saharan Africa group. His responsibilities there included provision of sovereign credit risk analysis. Benjamin received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Morehouse College.
Speaker At: The Business Behind Developing Underserved Communities

Ryan Mack

Mr. Mack has a life mission to build and develop a durable financial empire geared towards educating his community and beyond. Ryan Mack graduated from the University of Michigan Business School (ranked number one in the country) with a concentration in Finance.  His career in equity markets began in Detroit, Michigan as a stock trader and later as a trader for the largest NASDAQ trading firm in the nation, Knight Securities.  Having a passion for teaching he established his own financial awareness group in 2003 where he began to publish regular newsletters about various financial related issues that were of interest to people from all income levels. In addition to being a financial advisor working with many prominent clients across the U.S., he charitably lends his support to inner-city communities by coordinating workshops and creating economic empowerment initiatives that teach the principles of understanding the power of financial literacy. Unions, churches, government-subsidized housing communities, municipal programs, nonprofits, inner-city organizations, international communities and especially colleges and universities have benefited from the financial workshops/programs that he has developed and instructed through Optimum Capital Management.

As a renowned public speaker he has provided keynote presentations to organizations across the country such as NAACP, National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Housing Preservation and Development, National Urban League, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Black MBA Association and many others.  With a strong sense of philanthropy he flew to South Africa to teach economic empowerment principles to those in need and has partnered with the local District Attorney’s office to teach financial literacy to previously incarcerated community residents with the aim of lowering recidivism rates.  He can be regularly viewed on television networks such as GMTV, CNBC, CNN and BET discussing economic/social issues that impact American citizens.  Ryan has also been profiled in Tavis Smiley’s Covenant and Action (a New York Times Bestseller); co-authored a book with Kevin Powell entitled “The Black Male Handbook”; featured in Black Enterprise Magazine, The Source Magazine & NV Magazine; contributes regularly to Huffingtonpost.com, The Network Journal, Fortune, and Black Enterprise; received the Top 40 Ander 40 Achievement Award from The Network Journal; was inducted by Medgar Evers College (where he currently serves as a board member) into its national honor society PI ETA KAPPA as a honorary member;  and received Tom Joyner’s “Hardest Working Financial Advisor Award” because of his efforts to empower the community with the crucial life skills of financial literacy.  Whether he is counseling a group of doctors at a convention or in Rikers Island providing a free course Ryan Mack’s comprehensive, exciting approach to teaching economic empowerment to all income levels has generated a level of much needed interest in a volatile economy.
Speaker at: Leveling the Playing Field: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap

Dominique Reese

Dominique’ Reese is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of CommuniTree LLC.

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, she attended Crenshaw High School, graduated Salutatorian and was the first student to attend Princeton University.

Upon graduating, she worked as an Analyst and Account Executive, managing marketing projects in Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Marketing Group.  In fall 2007, she joined the well-established W.A.S. Financial Advisory team, as Junior Partner, managing $4 million in assets and liabilities. During her tenure as an advisor Dominique’ assisted clients with personal financial management, ranging from planning and budgeting to investments and insurance.  However, her talent and skill for financial literacy and strategic planning added value for her client’s experience and her team’s success.

In her effort to spread financial knowledge to youth and adults, Dominique’ has volunteer taught and mentored youth in Trenton, New Jersey, Bedstuy, Brooklyn and Harlem, New York about financial and investing basics. It is her belief that the youth are missing a critical life lesson, just as important as Science, English, or Social Studies, that they can’t afford to be without. She was honored by the Minisink House Phoenix Sorority, as a recipient of the Beacon of Light Award, for serving the local Harlem community youth and adults. In Spring 2009, Dominique’ created CommuniTree LLC, aimed at annually improving the financial literacy and education of 12,000 American youth and adults.

Dominique’ is the eldest sibling of three girls. She graduated from Princeton in 2006, with a degree in Economics and a Certificate in African-American Studies. She serves as a Big Sister in the Big Brother Big Sister of America national mentoring program.
Speaker at: Leveling the Playing Field: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap

Blondel Pinnock

Blondel A. Pinnock is a Senior Vice President of Carver Federal Savings Bank and the President of Carver Community Development Corporation (CCDC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the bank.As President of CCDC Ms. Pinnock is responsible for formalizing the bank’s CRAcompliance, community development and outreach strategy as well as corporate givingwithin the neighborhoods it serves. This includes providing lending and investmentopportunities, educational and technical assistance to low and moderate incomeindividuals and families within underserved markets.While at Carver Ms. Pinnock has taken an active role in implementing its New MarketsTax Credit program with the bank’s recent allocation of $65 million awarded through theRecovery Act. She has had the opportunity to testify before the Ways and MeansCommittee of Congress regarding Carver’s experience as an allocatee under the NMTCprogram.She has also helped to further the bank’s efforts and the reach of its financial literacyprogram through collaboration with local community groups and city, state and federalprograms.

A lawyer by training, during her over 10+ year career in banking and finance, Ms. Pinnock has been responsible for financing residential and commercial projects within New York City, including various projects in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx. She has worked closely with both real estate and not for profit developers in structuring and financing projects located within low and moderate income census tract areas. Ms. Pinnock served as Vice President and then Senior Vice President of Community Development Banking at Bank of America and its predecessor institution, Fleet Bank.During her tenure at the Bank she originated and closed over $280MM in construction and real estate financing which has helped to create over 3000 units of housing and over185,000 SF of retail and office space in New York City and Westchester and New Jersey.

Prior to joining the Bank, Ms. Pinnock held the position as counsel and deputy director for the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation and Development’s (“HPD”) Tax Incentives Unit. While there, she assisted in the implementation of the City’s real estate tax programs for low, moderate and market rate projects. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Pinnock worked as a litigation associate at the lawfirm of Wilson, Elser, et al.Ms. Pinnock is affiliated with a number of professional and civic organizations. She sits on 125th Street BID Board (Treasurer), Abyssinian Development Corporation, the Board of Directors of South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. (SOBRO), the Board of Directors of Citizens Housing Planning Council (CHPC), the National Board of Operation Hope, Frederick E. Samuel Community Democratic Club and she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Ms. Pinnock earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from Columbia University (1990) and a Juris Doctorate from Hofstra University School of Law (1994). She resides in the Village of Harlem, NY with her son Miles.
Speaker at: Leveling the Playing Field: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap

Joseph Godwin

Joe is a Director and has been with Credit Suisse Private Banking USA since December 2008.  He is responsible for investments, client relationships and general business management with a focus on Alternative Investments.  Prior to joining Credit Suisse he worked 15 years at Goldman Sachs.  The past 10 years Joe built a Private Wealth Management business in which he advised clients undergoing liquidity events such as initial public offerings, secondary offerings, merger transactions, venture capital distributions, and asset sales, as well as generational wealth transfers, diversification/hedging strategies of highly concentrated stock holdings and business positioning/competitive strategy.  Prior to Private Wealth Management, he worked in Goldman Sachs’ Fixed Income, Currency and Commodity division where he advised 22 clients representing over $125 billion in assets on fixed income portfolio strategy and investment management. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Joe spent thirteen years at IBM in various management, marketing and consulting assignments throughout the United States.  Joe received his M.B.A. from the Stern School at New York University and earned a Bachelors degree in Biology from Lafayette College.  Joe is a member of Lafayette College’s Board of Advisors, and also serves on the boards of the Arthur Ashe Tennis Youth & Education Foundation, as well as the Greater Philadelphia Mentoring Partnership.
Speaker at: Leveling the Playing Field: Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap

Nicole Campbell

Nicole Campbell is Vice President of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation where she has developed and executed the Foundation’s education investment strategy.  In her role, Nicole attracted new, external ?nancial support and created innovative ways for the Bank to meet its Community Reinvestment Act obligations. She created College Ready Communities, which facilitates partnerships between housing developers, local education advocacy organizations, and public schools to improve academic outcomes in low-income neighborhoods.

Nicole has recruited partners ranging from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the New York City Department of Education. Her prior experience includes work with the New York City Department of Education, as well as with government and non-pro?t organizations in the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

Nicole is a founding board member of Achievement First Brownsville, a charter school in Brooklyn, New York. She received a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School where she founded the annual Harvard Black Policy Conference and received the Julius E. Babbitt Alumni Award for Service.  Nicole received her B.A. from Amherst College where she received the John Woodruff Simpson Fellowship and was a two time NCAA Division III National Triple Jump Champion in Track & Field.

Malik O. Ashiru

Malik Ashiru is a Director of Client Solutions within American Express Business Travel.  In this role, he manages 12 large market accounts and creates the overall program strategy to identify and to capture client savings. In addition, he works with client executives to drive strategic investments to position their company for long-term growth.

Prior to his current role, Malik was on the Global B2B Business Development and Strategy team where he managed multiple phases of a mobile payments strategy in China.  This included economic analysis, new product development, and contractual negotiations, which culminated in an exclusive multi-year card partnership with Amex’s largest Chinese bank partner.

In early 2008, Malik was selected to be in the company’s Global Rotation Program. In London he led a 7-person cross-functional team to create a new process for Merchant Services Europe to evaluate innovative opportunities.   This enables senior leadership to assess and to develop high potential revenue concepts quickly.  This also created a new pricing expansion construct for the Membership Rewards program.

Malik joined American Express in 2006 as a Senior Manager on the Network Strategy team within Global Merchant Services. He managed the global assessment of AXP’s Closed Loop capabilities and identified opportunities to enhance and to extend the capabilities in eight key international markets.

Malik holds an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

He resides in New York City.
Speaker at: Paths to Success: Career Versatility in Today’s Global Economy

Thomas Campbell

Thomas is a Principal and founder of Thorobird Companies. Thomas leverages an eight-year career in quantitative analysis and investment strategy and a unique combination of real estate debt and equity experience.  In the capital markets, Thomas worked as quantitative analyst, an association portfolio manager and an institutional investment advisor.  In real estate, Thomas has worked as a development credit underwriter and an associate development director for real estate developer.

Thomas has a wealth of experience in the capital markets. Thomas worked as a quantitative risk analyst on high-yield debt funds and later as an associate portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch.  Thomas later joined Morgan Stanley’s institutional advisory practice, consulting corporations on retirement plan design.

Thomas has also worked on both the lending and equity sides of the real estate housing industry.  Thomas worked as a development credit underwriter for First State Bank of Florida.  He later worked as an affordable housing development director for Genesis Companies.

Thomas received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Relations from Colgate University and received a MBA in Real Estate Finance from Columbia Business School.  He is an active member of his local community and always works to make a tangible impact.  He co-founded the Hughie Mills Business Academy, a Columbia Business School-housed, classroom-based initiative that teaches business plan preparation skills to local small business. Thomas is a Management Leaders of Tomorrow Fellow.  He is a federally-licensed registered representative holding professional registrations of NASD Series 7, 63 and 31. Mr. Campbell served on the boards of the Saint Petersburg, Florida Chamber of Commerce and The Suncoast Center for Community Mental Health.  In addition, he was the chairman of Saint Petersburg Young Professionals.  Thomas serves on Colgate’s Alumni of Color Committee and is a regional coordinator of high schoolstudent recruitment. He lives in New York with his wife, Ai.
Speaker at: Paths to Success: Career Versatility in Today’s Global Economy

Jullien Gordon

Jullien Gordon, The PurposeFinder, is the country’s leading voice on purpose and motivation for the millennial generation. At the age of 27, he already has 10 years of experience working with millennials as a CEO, coach, and counselor. He believes that his purpose is to help as many people as possible find their purpose and reach their full potential by helping them make a living doing what they love. He is currently CEO of the Department of Motivated Vehicles, a personal and professional development company designed to help millennials discover and align their lives with their purpose through motivational teaching and speaking, executive coaching, and employee motivation consulting.

In 2007, Jullien received two masters degrees from Stanford University—his MBA and Masters in Education—before going on to become the Associate Director of Talent Recruitment for Management Leadership for Tomorrow, one of the leading talent development organizations for college students and young professionals.

He is also passionate about writing. He recently published two books at the same time. One is titled “The 8 Cylinders of Success: How To Align your Personal and Professional Purpose < http://julliengordon.mvmt.com/8-cylinders-of-success-by-jullien-gordon/> ” and the other one is Good Excuse Goals: How To End Procrastination & Perfectionism Forever. He also blogs regularly at JullienGordon.com on millennials, purpose, love, and life.

Jullien Gordon is originally from Oakland, California and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaker at: Paths to Success: Career Versatility in Today’s Global Economy

Deborah Wijnberg

Deb Wijnberg is Global HR Leader/Talent Management with Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD).  Deb joined BD in January 2002.

In this role, Deb has accountability for global Talent Management, which includes Leadership Development (with particular focus on the development of general managers for worldwide, regional, country businesses), global succession management, talent acquisition, executive coaching, change management, and organizational development.  Deb serves as a member of the WW HR Leadership Team.

Prior to this role, Deb served as the VP WW Human Resources, BD Diagnostics, a $ 2 Billion BD business segment.   At that time, Deb worked closely with BD Diagnostics business leaders and human resource team members in the regions focusing in particular on the development of our human resources strategy, talent flow, and succession planning within the complex worldwide environment.

Deb’s management experiences have spanned a 25 year career across the medical device, consumer products and banking industries, including all human resources functions for C.R. Bard, global management development and talent acquisition for the Coca-Cola Company, and recruitment at the Quaker Oats Company, First Chicago Corporation and Mellon Bank Corporation.

Originally from Buffalo, New York, Deb attended Allegheny College where she earned a BA in Psychology.  After graduation, she worked at the Learning Research and Development Center, a cognitive psychology research organization affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh.  After two years, she enrolled in the university’s Master of Social Work program, and completed a degree with emphasis on industrial social work.

Deb, her husband Tom and their daughter Mia reside in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.
Speaker at: Paths to Success: Career Versatility in Today’s Global Economy

Aynesh Johnson

Aynesh is the Global Head of Global Leadership and Diversity in the firm’s Human Capital Management Division. She is responsible for the firm’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

Aynesh initially joined Goldman Sachs in July 1992 and spent three years as a Financial Analyst in the Corporate Finance Department. After leaving to pursue her M.B.A., Aynesh rejoined the Firm in July 1997, and spent six years as a banker in the Investment Banking Division covering clients in the Industrials sector.

In September 2003, Aynesh transitioned to the Human Capital Management division. Aynesh became a Vice President in 2000. Aynesh serves as Board President for the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, a non-profit that services underprivileged families on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Aynesh earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Duke University in 1992 and received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1997.
Speaker at: Town Hall Community Discussion: Leadership and Workplace Diversity

Modupe Akinola

Modupe Akinola is an Assistant Professor of Management at Columbia Business School. Professor Akinola’s research focuses on the effects of stress on emotional and cognitive functioning in managerial and organizational life, biases in decision making, and workforce diversity.  Her research on workforce diversity examines the strategies organizations employ to increase the diversity of their talent pool. She also explores biases that affect the recruitment and retention of minorities in organizations. Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Professor Akinola worked in professional services, specifically in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and in consulting at Bain & Company. Professor Akinola holds a B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from Harvard University, as well as an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. from Harvard Business School.
Speaker at: Town Hall Community Discussion: Leadership and Workplace Diversity