Shola Olatoye, an experienced real estate executive, specializing in public-private partnerships. She serves as the inaugural Chief Executive Office (CEO) of the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation (DDC).

The DDC is the independent nonprofit organization created to lead downtown San Francisco’s economic recovery. Working in close collaboration with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration, the DDC is raising high impact capital, braided with civic leadership investing in critical infrastructure solutions to support downtown’s revitalization. In December 2025, Shola announced that the DDC had raised $60M in contributions and commitments. This catalytic capital is being deployed to support conditions for future downtown investment: clean, safe, activations, real estate and open space projects.

Prior to joining the DDC, Shola served as the Chief Operating Officer at Eden Housing, a statewide nonprofit housing developer. In her role as COO, Shola managed operations across Eden’s 11,000-unit affordable housing portfolio in California. Her leadership spanned a 400-person team including property management, resident services, technology, human resources, training, development, and engagement. While at Eden, Shola led Emergency Business Continuity preparedness; held the first ever executive emergency tabletop and implemented an Enterprise-wide emergency alert system. Shola also led a team to revise Eden’s Five-Year Strategic Plan resulting in reduction in operating costs. She also led the team that created Eden’s first artificial intelligence agent: AskEden.

Before joining Eden, Shola was Director of Housing and Community Development for the City Oakland, California. While there, she led the agency to create and preserve more than 17,000 affordable homes, launched the city’s distribution of over $48 million in federal COVID-era rental assistance, and oversaw the acquisition and renovation of more than 600 units to provide immediate housing for formerly unhoused residents. She also created and introduced Oakland’s first-ever housing data dashboard and established public-private partnerships with the San Francisco Foundation and Stanford University’s Changing Cities Lab.

Before relocating to California, Shola served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Housing Authority—the largest public housing authority in the nation. A mayoral appointee, Shola created and launched NextGeneration NYCHA, a $10 billion, 10-year strategic plan to stabilize and modernize the agency. This plan balanced the $3B budget for the first time in fifteen years and introduced technology to 5,600 frontline staff. She raised more than $2M to seed a nonprofit philanthropic organization, the Fund for Public Housing to support residents’ economic mobility. Earlier in her career, Shola spent two decades in the private and nonprofit sectors, holding leadership roles at Suffolk Construction, Enterprise Community Partners, HSBC Bank N.A., and HR&A Advisors.

She currently serves as board chair of the California Nonprofit Housing Association and sits on the advisory board of the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund. She served as Terner fellow and advisory board member for the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Shola was also a 2024 Bisnow awardee for Outstanding Excellence & Influence in Northern California Commercial Real Estate. 

She is also a proud member of the Berkeley Bay Area Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an international public service organization. Ms. Olatoye earned her B.A. with honors in History and African American Studies from Wesleyan University and her M.P.A. from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where she also served as a Visiting Teaching Scholar.