MWBE Unite, Inc. name Ahmed and Ackerman to the board of directors

MWBE Unite, Inc. has appointmented Asmau Ahmed and Lisa Ackerman to the Board of Directors, effective immediately.  

MWBE Unite, a platform supplier incubated by JRT Realty, works to bridge diverse suppliers and client needs to create accessible opportunities by syndicating M/WBEs firms and CRE individuals with the ultimate goal of advancing inclusionary practices across all aspects of the built environment.  

“We are extremely honored to have leaders such as Asmau and Lisa join us on the mission to improve diversity in the CRE sector.  Their expertise and guidance will accelerate MWBE Unite’s progress,” said Pay Wu, president and co-founder of MWBE Unite.  

Asmau Ahmed is a senior leader at X (formerly Google X), Alphabet’s innovation factory. She sits on the boards of CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and Quinstreet (NASDAQ: QNST). She serves as an advisor to the Yale Entrepreneurship Society and is a member of the Opportunity Leadership Council.

She has a foundation in Engineering and Finance and over 20 years of experience as a venture-funded CEO, operating executive, and management consultant. She has led over $10 billion in digitally enabled innovations and operations spanning multiple industries including technology, consumer retail, manufacturing, and financial services. She is skilled at balancing disruptive innovation with operational, fiscal, risk management and regulatory compliance rigor.

Prior to joining X, Ahmed was managing director of Business and Technology at Bank of America where she worked with senior leaders and CEOs of Bank of America, Citi, JPMC, BNYM, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, State Street, and Morgan Stanley - collective known as the US SIBs, to design and implement technology solutions including Cyber Security, Third Party Risk, Identity and more.

Ahmed has been recognized as a “Top Woman in Digital" by Cynopsis Media; “Black Business and Tech Professionals Changing the Game” by Huffington Post; and one of “26 Women Of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship In Silicon Valley, Media, And Beyond” by Vanity Fair.

She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS with Honors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Lisa Ackerman serves as executive director of Columbus Citizens Foundation, an organization devoted to Italian culture and Italian American heritage. CCF provides more than $2 million annually in scholarships and offers a broad range of public programs.  Previously, Ackerman served as interim CEO of World Monuments in 2018 and 2019, after having served as executive vice president & COO from 2007 to 2018.  

Prior to her work in international heritage conservation, Ackerman served as executive vice president of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, an organization focused on art history, art conservation, the development of scholarly resources, and graduate education. She worked in the Education Department of the Museum of Modern Art during the time the Visual Thinking Curriculum was developed and worked with school groups and family programs to make art more accessible to younger visitors. She is currently chair of Historic House Trust of New York City and of the New York Preservation Archive Project. She is a member of the board of the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium. Ackerman also serves on the board of ASOR. She has served on the Boards of US ICOMOS, Partners for Sacred Places, and the Neighborhood Preservation Center. She holds an appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. She holds an MS in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute, an MBA from New York University, and a BA from Middlebury College.