Ornella Adekoye

Emory University, Goizueta Business School

“Passionate financial educator empowering communities of color to build wealth and close the racial wealth gap.”

Hometown: Newark, NJ

Fun Fact About Yourself: I owned a West African Restaurant in Newark, NJ that opened and closed during COVID

Undergraduate School and Major: Seton Hall University. Major – Finance

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: BizGuider Consulting – Founder and Lead Consultant

What makes Atlanta such a great place to earn an MBA? Atlanta is a cultural and entrepreneurial hub with deep ties to finance, innovation, and inclusive economic growth. The diversity, and bustling culture encourages hustlers and innovators to bring their ideas to life with like-minded, supportive individuals.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Emory Goizueta’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?  One of the key reasons I chose Goizueta was its robust support for entrepreneurship, especially through resources like The Hatchery and its partnership with Techstars. As someone who’s built a consulting business focused on improving capital access for underserved founders, I was drawn to a program that doesn’t just teach entrepreneurship but actively nurtures it. Goizueta’s robust curriculum, startup accelerators, and community of innovators align perfectly with my goals to scale my impact-driven ventures and create more pathways to financial equity.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Emory Goizueta? The Business & Society Institute stood out to me. Its commitment to advancing racial equity and inclusive finance directly aligns with my background in deploying capital to underserved communities and my long-term goal of reshaping how small businesses of color access funding. I am excited to support the Start:ME Accelerator, which provides small business coaching and consulting to growing businesses in the Atlanta Metro area.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I’ve helped deploy over $60 million in small business loans across the US. At the same time, I was consulting under-resourced entrepreneurs, building technical assistance programs, and leading a $2 million equity accelerator fund for Black and Brown founders.

Looking ahead two years, what would make your Emory MBA experience a success? A successful Emory MBA experience means walking away with a powerful network of peers, mentors, and collaborators who will challenge and support me. It means gaining the strategic tools to scale my business, deepen its impact, and position it for long-term growth. Most of all, success looks like using everything I’ve learned to expand access to financial resources for underserved communities, while building meaningful relationships that last well beyond the program.

DON’T MISS: MEET EMORY GOIZUETA’S MBA CLASS OF 2027

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