Nicole Taylor

Nicole Taylor, President and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), has been named to the inaugural Silicon Valley Business Journal Power 100 List, a roster of the most influential business people and leaders working in Silicon Valley.

Taylor has led SVCF in working with donors to build a culture of effective philanthropy with a focus on local giving. Though Silicon Valley is a byword for innovation and prosperity, it’s also a place where income inequality has accelerated twice as fast as in California and the nation overall. Taylor created a Community Advisory Council made up of 20+ local community leaders of color to help ensure a genuine understanding of the challenges their communities face, giving them a platform to continually influence the foundation’s strategies, policies and grantmaking. Additionally, the foundation has shifted its strategy to provide more general operating support and capacity-building grants to support a broader range of organizations led by and serving people of color.

Recently, Taylor was named Inside Philanthropy’s 2022 ‘Community Foundation Leader of the Year’ for her work “righting the ship” at SVCF and “shifting its overall strategy to advance gender, racial and economic justice in the vastly unequal Silicon Valley.” She was also included in the 2022 Forbes 50 Over 50-Impact list, which highlights women who are breaking barriers and achieving success over the age of 50.

Before SVCF, Taylor served as deputy vice president and dean of students at Arizona State University before serving as vice president of the ASU Foundation. Prior to her time at ASU, Taylor was the associate vice provost of student affairs and dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University, after serving as president and CEO of Thrive Foundation for Youth in Silicon Valley and president and CEO of the East Bay Community Foundation.