Otis Rolley on funding that leads to economic mobility and security

Innovators share ideas with WorkingNation Overheard at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2021
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Working to help vulnerable families – particularly, low-wage workers – is a focus of the US Equity and Economic Opportunity Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. Otis Rolley, senior vice president, leads the effort.

He explains, “We know that they are vulnerable because there are systems in place that have created policies and practice that really cut them off from opportunity. What we try to do through our grantmaking – both on the policy side and on the practice side – is create opportunities for them to achieve economic security and to have a pathway towards economic mobility.”

WorkingNation sat down with Rolley at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2021 in Beverly Hills as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard interview series. With Charting a New Course as the guiding theme, thought leaders and innovators shared ideas about the changing economy, worker development, education, tech, philanthropy, and more.

Rolley notes that the systems that have created disparity require comprehensive solutions. “We’ve recognized that a lack of access to capital and credit is what’s helping to create the wealth and income gap that exists in our country. We collect data and amplify the analysis of that data around banking institutions and corporations and how they are playing, and whether they are playing fair or not.”

Working toward eliminating that lack of access to capital, the Rockefeller Opportunity Collective earlier this year increased its committment to support BIPOC-owned businesses from $12 million to $15 million. The funding will be allocated to a collective of partners, including government agencies and nonprofits, in 12 cities with a focus on helping Black and Latino business owners. Says Rolley, “Contextualized technical assistance that really gets to the heart of the issues (faced) by some of these small businesses and entrepreneurs can really help them to grow.”

“On the economic policy side, we support – at the state level and the federal level – policies such as earned income tax credit and child tax credit. We also fund work that helps to amplify local voices in participation to create a much, much more progressive tax code,” he adds.

Rolley emphasizes COVID-19 has exposed not just economic disparity, but also in physical, mental, spiritual health, as well. He says, “You can’t have a country thrive and succeed if a large portion of members of that society are left at the very bottom. If you want full participation in our success, and you want us to actually be a strong and competitive nation, there can’t be such a gap as what exists right now.”

Click here to learn more about the US Equity and Economic Opportunity Initiative.
Click here to learn more about The Rockefeller Foundation.

Follow the conversation on social media: #WorkingNationOverheard #WorkingNation #MIGlobal

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.