Taffi Ayodele

An experienced founder and advisor, Taffi Ayodele co-founded Thando Holdings, a Lagos, Nigeria- and NYC-based fashion / tech company that uses a crowdsourcing process to create a global platform for African artists and their fashion products. In 2015, Forbes named Taffi one of the 10 Emerging Women Entrepreneurs to Watch in Africa. Taffi continues to advise small businesses on growth and expansion as a Principal of TW Advisory, a boutique small business advisory practice. Taffi helps owners identify sources of capital, develop marketing strategies to expand customer bases, and identify and bid on government and corporate contracts. She currently serves as Advisor to Harpia Asset Management, a mission-driven real estate investment and development company based in New York City. Harpia identifies off-market, special situation real estate opportunities in New York City with legal, financial, entitlement or other technical challenges and provides owners with solutions that allow them to achieve more of the economic upside value in their assets than the conventional market options. Harpia’s core principles include socially responsible investing and sustainable development. Taffi began her career at Blaylock Van, LLC, (BRV), Wall Street's longest continuously operated African American investment banking and financial services company, before moving to public service as Director of the Office of Executive Initiatives at the New York State Dormitory Authority (DASNY), New York State’s public finance and construction authority. At DASNY, Taffi developed Authority-wide diversity programs and initiatives to broaden procurement opportunities and increase utilization of women and minority-owned businesses. Taffi currently serves on the board of the NYU Global Libraries and is a Trustee Emeritus of New York University (2015-2021), The Guyana Economic Development Trust (2018-2021), and New Jersey SEEDS (2017-2019). She earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the College of Arts and Sciences and an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business.