Shola Diop is born in Sydney Australia raised by a single mum and is a proud descendant of the Yoruba people in Nigeria as his father came to Sydney in the 1970s and his mother is also part Caribbean heritage. At a young age Shola’s career in athletics led to a Division 1 scholarship in the United Sates as the first Australian South Sea Islander (ASSI) who is also of African heritage to represent in College Basketball and went onto be the first ASSI to be accepted into Oxford University Sááid Business School. Shola’s profession spans a decade across institutional finance and not-for-profit management. Shola has worked at top-tier financial institutions including experience at Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and PIMCO, operating in asset management, institutional investment, and social finance. Shola is also a co-founder and treasurer of an Australian non-profit focused on social justice and community development across ASSI, CALD, Pacific, and First Nations communities. As the Manager at DAI Capital for the advisory and investment arm Shola’s uniquely varied experience sits at the intersection of institutional finance and social impact. Shola say’s… “I am passionate about the mobilisation of capital toward systemic social change for the world’s most vulnerable citizens”
M.B.A. and postgraduate diploma in financial strategy, University of Oxford
B.A. finance, Winthrop University