“We know that diverse entrepreneurs are underrepresented in the market and our goal is to help really influence the operating environment and directly invest in entrepreneurs so that we can see the capital and help them be successful as others in the marketplace,” says Tyra Mariani, president, Schultz Family Foundation.
The organization just announced an initial allocation of $100 million to create the Entrepreneurs Equity Fund (EEF) – investing in diverse businesses to create a more inclusive economy, jobs, and wealth in historically underrepresented communities.
WorkingNation sat down with Mariani at Presented by JFF Horizons – See Beyond 2022 in New Orleans.
Mariani says diverse businesses often face barriers to funding, noting the EEF is “specifically to help unlock non-predatory capital.”
“There are many high-growth businesses that don’t have the capital that they need. They don’t have the working capital, for example, that they need to fulfill purchase orders. So, the more we understood that there were really exciting businesses and entrepreneurs out there who –with a little bit of support and a little bit of investment – could be a middle market company, then that seemed to us to be a bit of a no brainer,” explains Mariani.
Learn more about the Schultz Family Foundation.
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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.
