Community Builder + Partnerships Enthusiast

Ashley is an accomplished attorney, banking professional and serial entrepreneur. Ashley founded and currently serves as CEO of Ready Life, the new financial technology platform that is disrupting the mortgage industry by pioneering a new path to homeownership that works to unhinge the importance for credit scores and other barriers. He is also the cofounder, with Dr. Bernice A. King, of Ready Entertainment, a production company that is dedicated to creating movies and TV shows with strong social justice messages. Ready Entertainment recently merged with P3 Media where Ashley serves a leader on its board. Ashley helms the Black-led investor group preparing to acquire the Utah-based, nonminority-owned Holladay Bank & Trust, a first-of-its-kind transaction that will create Redemption Bank, pending regulatory approval. This would stand to be the first black owned bank in the Rocky Mountains. Ashley serves as the General Counsel for the National Black Bank Foundation and the $250 million Black Bank Fund, and in this role, facilitated the refinance of the construction loan for the Emory Sports Medicine Complex with a syndicate of Black-owned banks. The $35 million loan marked the first time a professional sports franchise had a significant loan underwritten exclusively by Black banks. Since then Ashley help facilitate over 1 Billion in related transactions with the likes of the NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA franchises and front offices. Ashley’s legal expertise spans public policy, business and banking, and he is the former White House Policy Advisor for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the office of American Innovation. In 2018, Ashley was tapped to lead the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Southeast Region. In 2020, he joined the world’s largest law firm, Dentons LLP, as a partner in their public policy practice. Ashley earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Valdosta State University and Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Civil Law from Louisiana State University. Ashley is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Civil Society Fellowship, A Partnership of ADL and The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.