Greg Taylor

During his eleven-year tenure at the National Basketball Association (NBA), Greg Taylor was appointed by Commissioner Adam Silver as the first-ever Executive Director of the NBA Foundation (NBAF), which was founded as the league’s visionary response to tumultuous social change occurring in the US and globally during 2020. As Executive Director, Taylor established the foundation’s mission to promote economic opportunity for high school, college-age and early career Black youth in all 28 NBA markets and scaled the organization from “start-up” to sustained impact on all aspects of the foundation’s development including operations, brand management, fundraising, corporate partnerships, communications, and social justice strategies. Under his leadership, NBAF invested 100M of the NBA’s 300M, 10-year pledge in programmatic and capacity building grants to 350+ nonprofits throughout the US and Canada, partnered with 15+ corporate partners and all 30 NBA teams to provide education, workforce skills training, and talent pipeline development for 350,000+ Black youth. 

From 2013 to 2020, Taylor served as Senior Vice President of Player Development for the NBA where he led the league's initiatives that promoted the personal, professional and social development of NBA players. He was responsible for NBA programs designed to orientate and educate rookies during their transition into the league, and advise team directors on overall player development, including best practices for managing off-the-court player matters. Taylor also led yearlong programs assisting players in continuing education, financial management and career transition throughout their NBA careers and beyond.

Prior to joining the NBA in 2013, Taylor served as the inaugural President and CEO of the Foundation for Newark's Future (FNF), another “start-up” philanthropy seeded with a $100 million matching funds gift from Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. In this capacity, Taylor raised $78 million, set the organization’s strategic direction, developed a Board of Directors comprised of Influential local and national leaders, and positioned the foundation as a national force in urban education reform. Taylor negotiated public and private-sector partnerships with a broad range of organizations to support innovative education programming and community development practices in Newark, N.J. Most notably, working with Newark Public Schools and the United Federation of Teachers, Taylor secured the first collective bargaining agreement in an urban district in the country that connected teacher performance ratings and compensation to student achievement.

From 2003 to 2011, Taylor worked as Vice President for Programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he led a series of national economic development, education and youth development initiatives that resulted in improving the quality of life for youth and families of color from under-resourced communities. While at Kellogg, Taylor established strong relationships with networks of national and community-based organizations and content experts that were devoted to improving learning outcomes for youth. He is widely regarded as a credible expert on youth issues, education, racial equity and social justice.

Taylor has unique experience in implementing strategies to achieve philanthropy’s desired impact in communities. He is skilled at managing complex grantee relationships, mediating sensitive political issues, and bridging the community-grantee-foundation divide across race, class and culture. He has a demonstrated track record of managing core capacity building functions, including finance, accounting, technology and communications.