The Atlanta Opera is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members of the Board of Directors with three-year terms starting October 2024. Joining the Opera board are Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim of BlackRock Atlanta Innovation Hub, Clark Dean of Transwestern, and Rashaun Williams of Value Investment Group. Each brings a wealth of expertise and leadership that aligns with the Opera’s goals of organizational growth and sustainability.

“We are thrilled to have Qaadirah, Clark, and Rashaun join our Board of Directors,” says Rhys Wilson, chair of The Atlanta Opera Board. “They are all leaders in their fields, both in business and in their communities, and wonderful people.  I look forward to working with them and having them as part of our Atlanta Opera family.”

Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim is the Head of Community Strategy for the BlackRock Atlanta Innovation Hub where she drives BlackRock’s social impact efforts in and around the greater Atlanta region and through the southwest. Previously, she served as the City of Atlanta’s Chief Equity Officer working with city leadership to develop progressive policies and programs focused on economic and workforce mobility, housing affordability, health, education, youth engagement, and LGBTQ affairs. Before joining the City of Atlanta, Abdur-Rahim served for nearly 17 years as a co-founder and CEO of Future Foundation, a nonprofit that works to break the cycle of generational poverty by serving under-invested public school students in Atlanta and Fulton County. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, she earned an MBA from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University and is a former U.S. Air Force Reservist.

Clark Dean is an Atlanta civic leader and national business leader at Transwestern where he founded the company’s Transaction Sciences Group, which serves clients across asset classes and service lines. He is a member of Transwestern’s Board of Directors and its National Tenant Representation and Workplace Solutions Steering Committee. He also helps lead the company’s global partnerships with BNP Paribas Real Estate and Encore Advisors. With a background in biomedical engineering, management consulting, and financial structuring, Dean is known as a disruptive innovator who helps businesses, grows non-profits, and enriches communities by structuring better solutions through his Transaction Sciences Group. Former President and Chairman of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and an active member of the Harvard Clubs of Georgia, New York City, and Boston, Clark Dean also serves on numerous boards including Shepherd Center, YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Covenant House GA, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber. He chairs the Board of Councilors for The Carter Center and is the former Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Chick-fil-A Foundation. Dean earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard and advanced professional development at Harvard Business School.  

Rashaun Williams is a venture capitalist, Atlanta Falcons limited partner, and financial literacy activist with over 170 investments under his belt and over 50 exits. Williams is the founder of his family office, Value Investment Group, and a general partner in the MVP All-Star Fund. He co-founded venture capital fund Queensbridge Venture Partners where he was an early investor in companies like Robinhood, Coinbase, Casper, Ring, PillPack, Lyft, and Dropbox. Over the last 20 years, Williams has brought capital to emerging, diverse, and alternative markets while working at Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs, Wachovia Securities, and Deutsche Bank. In 2007, he founded Dixsville Partners, a private equity fund investing in infrastructure development and mineral companies in West Africa. In 2023, Williams founded Antimatter Business Partners to teach athletes and entertainers how to operate their own private equity family offices. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. and a summa cum laude graduate of Morehouse College.

With the addition of Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim, Dean Clark, and Rashaun Williams to the Board of Directors, The Atlanta Opera reaffirms its commitment to bringing together a diverse and dynamic leadership team to guide its strategic direction and achieve its mission of breaking the boundaries of opera.