Gary Leon is a New York City native and self-made businessman. Stemming from a Haitian cultural background, His rigorous work ethic is a characteristic instilled from his mother. From an early onset, Mr. Leon decided to be an entrepreneur. His first project within the community started in 2006 in NY. I wanted to do something so I used the resources from my T-shirt business and was able to help give money directly to the family of a young man who was killed. Partnering with a successful celebrity and their website we were able to run a nationwide  T-shirt campaign & directly impact his family financially.  

This inspired him to create The Cooperative Opportunity Project to provide opportunities to disenfranchised communities by bringing together small businesses and great projects.  He used personal revenue to fund many of his initial projects.  These programs consisted of business courses taught in group homes.  Mentorships for high school students, summer camps designed to provide pathways to entrepreneurship, food drives, and Christmas giveaways.  These are some examples of Gary’s hard work and dedication to uplift underserved communities.  Gary founded this nonprofit in April of 2020. Since then he has been able to run over 6 successful programs nationwide during the pandemic. He continues to be the leading representative of the coined phrase, “Ordinary people doing extraordinary things”.

Hasani Edwards, a Licensed Master of Social Worker and native of Queens, New York, has spent over a decade providing therapeutic services across the city, specializing in working with teens in crisis. His passion for community advocacy was ignited at the Broome County Urban League, where he mentored students and helped hundreds achieve computer literacy. After five years dedicated to child welfare, he shifted to serving New York City’s geriatric population, helping seniors facing long-term illnesses access essential medical services. These diverse experiences—from empowering youth to supporting the elderly—now fuel his drive to create lasting change in the community and have led him to start his own practice.

 

In June of 2020, Dorian Fuller joined the Human Resources Department of BNP Paribas USA to act as Head of Diversity Recruitment after spending nearly 4 years in the Firm’s Compliance Department. Over the last 16 years, Dorian has built his career leading Compliance teams at various premier financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Bank of America, and RBC Capital Markets.

During his career, Dorian has been able to act upon his passion for Diversity and Inclusion at each of these institutions through his participation on employee resource group executive boards and/or diversity-focused initiatives.  As Head of Diversity Recruitment, Dorian is building upon this passion and his experience in developing corporate strategy and establishing effective control frameworks. In this role, Dorian develops and implements sustainable data-driven strategies for recruiting diverse talent. Dorian is also a member of the executive board of the African Heritage Employee Resource Group at BNP. Dorian holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Philosophy from St. John’s University and, in 2015, he earned a Master’s of Business Administration from the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University.

 Peggy Louis is a Lead Finance Associate for the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. She also held positions in her home state of New York, She worked as the Executive Assistant to the Managing Director of the ISDA desk at Merrill Lynch where for over 10 years she was entrusted with highly sensitive International Swap sales information. Peggy has graduated from the Molloy College on Long Island, New York, and holds a dual degree in Business Administration and Sociology. Peggy is currently pursuing her MBA with a concentration in Organizational Psychology from Grand Canyon University. Peggy has many years of experience working in various sectors of business, However with all years of experience Peggy passion lays with helping the community, Peggy spent over 6 years working for the City of New York in the Department of Children Services where she assisted in implementing and helped create many programs to assist children that were in the foster care system. She wants to engage more with influential decision-making and public policy. She's open to challenges, conversations, and an exchange of ideas from the community in order to effect change where needed.