Black PR Wire Power Profiler on Natalie M. Cofield, President & CEO of Association for Enterprise Opportunity
Natalie Madeira Cofield is a presidentially appointed expert on small business and has been named one of the most powerful women in business by Entrepreneur Magazine.
An award-winning entrepreneur, philanthropist, political appointee, and economic activist, Natalie has provided some of the nation's most prominent CEOs of billion-dollar organizations, executives of global brands, senior advisors to the White House, mayors of leading national cities, and community activists and leaders with inspiration, insight, and advisement.
As a presidentially-appointed Assistant Administrator of the Small Business Administration, she advised on the deployment of $1.2 trillion in funding and was directly responsible for supporting the deployment of more than $200 million in funding to eco-systems and entrepreneurs throughout the country during the greatest economic crisis in modern history.
At SBA, Cofield was also responsible for managing a grant-making budget of $70 million and funding the largest expansion of the Women’s Business Center network in the history of SBA.
She is co-founder of the $14M Coalition to Back Black Business which was responsible for funding nearly 1,000 Black-owned businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and Founder of the Capital Ready Coalition comprised of more than a dozen national Black Women organizations from across the nation.
From Google to the National League of Cities, Natalie's speeches, courses, and advisory services have helped to shape programs and efforts of some of the most regarded global brands, and educational and government institutions.
Natalie’s expertise is widely recognized, and her insights have been featured in major media outlets such as Inc., Time, CNN, The New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Black Enterprise, Essence, and EBONY. She is a sought-after speaker, having presented at esteemed institutions including Harvard, Yale, Brookings, The Aspen Institute, SXSW, Google, Meta, and Dell. She was a 2018 Advocate of the Year by the Minority Business Development Agency. In recognition of her significant contributions to economic development, Natalie was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Shaw University in 2023.
Once inspired by reading the business plans of her mother when she was 11, Natalie is the founder and former CEO of Walker's Legacy, a digital platform to empower women through entrepreneurship, and its adjoined nonprofit arm, the Walker's Legacy Foundation, which was established to empower income limited women through financial literacy and economic security. In this role, Cofield established a $25,000 funded scholarship for enterprising women at her alma mater, Howard University. Most recently she earned the distinguished Certificate of Management Excellence from Harvard Business School with a focus on Innovation. She is an honors graduate of Howard University and the Baruch School of Public Affairs, where she was a National Urban Fellow.
Currently, Natalie serves on the corporate board of directors for Harbor Bankshares Corporation ($345M in holdings) and the Smithsonian Community Museum. An avid traveler, she has explored over 47 countries and continues to broaden her global perspective.