Francilia Wilkins Rahim on creating economic access and opportunities for disadvantaged communities.

Today we are celebrating the incredible Francilia Wilkins Rahim for Women Making History. Francilia is a thought leader, a staunch advocate for diversity in procurement, development, and management, and the founder and CEO of RF Wilkins Consultants. and the Founder and CEO of AYO Labs the nation’s first modern-day, African American women-owned accelerator.

To date, Francilia has led RFW in raising more than $900 million for clients, completing more than 1000 unique projects and growing into the ranks of the top .1% of management consulting firms, owned by an African American woman in the United States. In 2020, she was awarded 3.5M from the City of New York and has since raised 14.5M which she will be leveraging to build AYO Labs anchored in a 40,000-square-foot contract manufacturing facility. The project will scale more than 500 businesses annually and create more than 400 jobs citywide. 

Ms. Wilkins Rahim is a sought-after speaker on equity and inclusion, minority & women business development, and the creation of economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities and the diversification of corporate America.  

Francilia serves on various boards including Greater Allen Development Corporation,  Allen Community Non-Profit Programs, St. John’s University’s Tobin College of Business, and New York State’s Housing and Community Renewal’s Multifamily Advisory Council. She also serves as Vice Chair for Brooklyn’s Pitkin Avenue Business Improvement District. In 2020 she was appointed as a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID Advisory Council for Real Estate and Infrastructure as well as NYC’s Department of Education MWBE Advisory Committee.   Francilia has received numerous awards and accolades for her work. In 2022, Crains named her NYC’s Emerging Leader in Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She was named Power Woman of New York by Schneps Media.

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