Carra Wallace 

Carra Wallace is the president of MBE Capital Partners (MBECP), which was established with the strategic objective of developing straight forward financing products for small to midsize Minority and Women-Owned Businesses (MWBEs) over 21 years ago. Most recently, MBECP stepped in as an SBA non-bank lender to support the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program designed to help small businesses keep their workers on payroll.Through a strategic partnership with Magic Johnson’s EquiTrust Life Insurance Company and utilization of the Federal Reserve’s liquidity facility, MBECP funded over 13,000 loans totaling more than $300 million – the majority going to small and minority-owned businesses.

In 2016, Ms. Wallace founded Optimized Diversity Solutions, a strategic advisory firm delivering disruptive solutions that increase the utilization of MWBEs and drive transparency and accountability through diversity and inclusion. Last year, Ms. Wallace led the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) “Minority Growth Equity Funds Initiative”, a $1.4 million grant awarded by the MBDA to support a project that will facilitate the aggregation and deployment of approximately $1 billion in growth capital into minority-owned businesses. She still provides strategic advisory services to Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network on their fight for one standard of economic justice ensuring that diverse-owned Investment Banking and Asset Management Firms gain fair access to greater institutional capital from pension funds, labor unions, corporate plans, philanthropies and universities.

Ms. Wallace concluded her career in the public sector as the first ever Chief Diversity Officer appointed by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. Ms. Wallace was responsible for delivering innovative solutions to increase contract opportunities for MWBEs across NYC’s agencies and the private sector. Ms. Wallace is an avid golfer and marathoner who has crossed the finish line in New York, Dubai, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Miami, Negril, Bali, and Paris, France.