Natalie Cofield

An award-winning entrepreneur, philanthropist, political appointee, and economic activist, Natalie Madeira Cofield has provided some of the nation's most prominent CEOs of billion-dollar organizations, executives of global brands, senior advisors to the White House, mayors of leading national cities, and community activists and leaders with inspiration, insight and advisement.

Her efforts have been responsible for supporting the deployment of more than $200 million in funding to ecosystems and entrepreneurs throughout the country. As the former head of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the U.S. Small Business Administration, she advised on the deployment of $1.2 trillion in funding and was directly responsible for architecting programs that distributed $200 million in funding to ecosystems during the greatest economic crisis in modern history. Cofield funded the largest expansion of the Women’s Business Center network in the history of SBA, with a total of 146 centers located in every state in the US, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Cofield is the founder and former CEO of a digital platform recognized on Inc Magazine's list of top "25 Companies Determined to See Women Succeed." She also established a supporting foundation for income-limited women through financial literacy and economic security, and funded a $25,000 Enterprise Women of Color scholarship at Howard University School of Business. In 2019, Cofield was named the inaugural Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the District of Columbia, leading Mayor Muriel Bowser’s 202Creates Program, providing entrepreneurship advice to creative economy businesses within the District of Columbia.

She transformed a vacant property into Urban Co-Lab, a coworking space that collaborated with clients like SnapChat, Google, and HPE. Her teaching and advisory roles extend globally, including her work as a member of the founding advisory board of the Google Supplier Diversity Council, and sessions at institutions such as Zumbi Dos Palmares University in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

An honors tech graduate, Cofield leveraged her coding experience to build a career centered on empowering businesses, entrepreneurs, women, and underrepresented communities. Her work has been featured on and by major publications including CNN, NYTimes, Fast Company, Forbes, and BusinessInsider. She has also been recognized among the Women Who Mean Business and named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2019.