State of the Field -- Leading Change: A View from the Field

NYU Wagner visiting fellow and adjunct lecturer, Shola Olatoye discusses lessons learned and best practices managing a complex public agency, nonprofit and private enterprise. 

Shola Olatoye is an experienced real estate and management executive with more than

twenty years of experience launching and managing public-private partnerships. In September

2018, she joined Suffolk Construction, a national construction management firm, that is leading

the industry to BuildSmart. Prior to joining Suffolk, Shola served as the Chair and Chief

Executive Officer of the New York City Housing Authority, the largest public housing authority in

the nation. As a Mayoral appointee, Shola worked with the administration, residents and

industry leaders to launch NextGeneration NYCHA, the agency’s 10-year turnaround plan. She

led her team to balance the $3.1 billion operating budget for three consecutive years, launched

a major real estate development program and founded a social impact nonprofit, the Fund for

Public Housing.

Prior to her government service, Ms. Olatoye was at Enterprise Community Partners, a national

affordable housing organization, where she served as New York’s Vice President & Market

Leader. She led the market’s 60-person team and leveraged $30 Million in private and public

sector grants. Before Enterprise, Shola was the Vice President and Community Development

Manager for South Florida and the District of Columbia for HSBC Bank, N.A., where she

directed regional community development investing and lending activities, as well as, managed

philanthropic relationships. Before relocating to South Florida, Shola worked at HR&Advisors

(formerly HR&A), a NYC-based a real estate advisory firm. She worked with urban public/private

partnerships with universities, parks, and redeveloping neighborhoods.

Ms. Olatoye served on the board of the Council for Large Public Housing Authorities. She was

the founding board chair of the Fund for Public Housing; a board member of the Bill T.

Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and an alumni-elected trustee and current President’s

Council member of Wesleyan University. Currently, she is a board member of the Community

Opportunity Fund, a national affordable housing organization. She is a member of the Church of

the Heavenly Rest, and co-chair of “Explore,” the church’s five-year strategic planning process.

Ms. Olatoye has received numerous awards including the 2018 NAACP Public Service Award,

2018 Roger Starr Citizens Housing and Planning Commission award, the 2017 Coalition for

Queens public service award, the 2016 Boys and Girls Club of Harlem M.L. Wilson Award for

Public Service, the 2016 New York Housing Conference public service award, the Institute for

Public Architecture and the 2017 Wesleyan University Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2014,

Crain’s named Ms. Olatoye to its “40 under 40” list of New York’s “most talented, driven, and

dynamic” young professionals.

Ms. Olatoye grew up in Connecticut and graduated with a B.A. with honors in history and

African American studies from Wesleyan University. Shola also earned a master’s degree in

public administration from the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, where she

currently serves as a Visiting Scholar teaching in the Master of Urban Planning program on

management and leadership. She lives in Harlem, New York, with her husband and their three

children.