Taj Ahmad-Eldridge

Taj Ahmad Eldridge was formerly part of the Steering Committee for the Highlander Venture Fund dedicated to investing in startups at the University of California Riverside. Taj was also the Director with the ExCITE Incubator also affiliated with the University of California Riverside. Taj previously served as equity partner and interim COO with Waraire Boswell and BoswellOfficial for Waraire Boswell Industries (www.waraireboswell.com and www.BoswellOfficial.com), an apparel firm based in Los Angeles under two brands - the modern luxury high end brand WaraireBoswell and the younger demographic athleisure brand BOSWELL. He is also working with wine curation start up I Like This Grape (www.ilikethisgrape.com), owned by ILTG Media, Inc. He also mentors Voter (www.voterapp.us) and is a board member in Xtopoly (www.xtopoly.com), and FarmSense (www.farmsense.io). Taj is also Advisor in Residence for the Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship as well as serves as a judge for the California Dreamin' Business Plan Competition, the UCLA/Knapp Venture Capital competition, and Big Ideas Berkeley. Taj formerly served as Chief Economist for TRW Investments. He began his career as a Commercial Banker with Wells Fargo Bank U.S. Corporate Banking Division in 1997, managing institutional treasury relationships. In 2006, Taj joined UBS as an Investment Manager in their Beverly Hills office. Most recently, Taj was Partner & Economist for Global PolicyVentures,LLP, venture debt firm, where he served on the board of agencies such as Textopoly & invested in start-ups such as , NewYooStyle, rookielook, & The Ivy League Early Learning Academy. Taj is a member of the Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA) , supporter of Hedge Fund Cares nonprofit organization and is a graduate of Texas A&M University-Commerce (BA), Pepperdine University (MBA) and Claremont Graduate University School of Politics & Economics (PhD studies). Taj has also completed post graduate work at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, University of Porto-Portugal & Universidad Adolfo Ibanez-Santiago, Chile as well as lectured on various international investment topics at Chapman University, University of California-Riverside and conferences such as the Intercultural Vintners Association, EMEA Venture Capital conference. Taj is fluent in Spanish and Arabic.