Entrepreneur, leader Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn joins Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors

The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York is pleased to announce the appointment of entrepreneur and civic leader Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn to its Board of Visitors. She joins 28 other distinguished Board Members. 

A serial entrepreneur, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn is a former owner and Vice Chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. along with five other companies between 1972 and 2012. She is a founding member and currently serves as a Vice Chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center as well as a founding member and current Co-Vice Chairman of The New 42nd Street/New Victory Theater for Children.

“I have known Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn for more than 40 years, and she is a wonderful addition to our board,” said General Colin L. Powell, a 1958 CCNY alumnus and Chair of the Colin Powell School Board of the Visitors. “Shahara is a successful entrepreneur and a leader with some of New York City’s most distinguished civic institutions. I admire her commitment to growing the ranks of women and those from diverse backgrounds in leadership posts across the professions.”

“The Colin Powell School’s central purpose is to prepare the nation’s most diverse student body to become tomorrow’s global leaders. Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn is committed to our fundamental mission and is a role model for our students,” said Andrew Rich, the Colin Powell School’s Dean. “We welcome her support and leadership, alongside her mentorship of our students, as a member of the Board of Visitors.”

The Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors helps to support the School’s strategic direction and philanthropic initiatives. 

About Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn
A serial entrepreneur who has started, owned, operated and sold six different companies from 1972 to 2012, Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn is a former owner and Vice Chairman of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Inc., a privately held corporation and the fourth largest Coke bottler in the United States. 

Prior to the bottling business, she owned and operated a home care company and had a long and successful career in the home health-care field. In September 2017, she launched Emmy Co., a mobile-optimized platform that provided vetted and trusted individuals to accompany New York City patients from door to door when family or friends were not available.

She is a founding member and currently serves as a Vice Chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is a founding member and currently serves as Co-Vice Chairman of The New 42nd Street/New Victory Theater for Children. She is an active member of the Northside Center for Child Development’s Council of Advisors. She previously served for over 20 years as Northside’s Co-Chairman and as a Vice Chairman. 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed her a Commissioner to the New York City Commission on Women’s Issues, where she served three four-year terms. Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed her to his new Commission on Gender Equity.

She was Co-Founder and a member of the Executive Board of Platform.org, a non-profit organization focused on diversifying participation and inclusion in the growing innovation economy by underrepresented groups including women.

She continues to be involved with various ventures and projects as well as maintaining her philanthropic activities and interests through the S. Ahmad-Llewellyn Family Foundation.

About the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership 
Established in April 2013, the Colin Powell School is home to the social science departments at CCNY as well as the core leadership development and public service programs of the College. With almost 4,000 students, and graduating the most CCNY students annually, the Colin Powell School mission is to transform the nation’s most diverse student body into tomorrow’s global leaders. Half of our students are immigrants; most come from lower income backgrounds. More than seventy percent are first-generation college students, and eighty percent are people of color. The Colin Powell School and City College remain among the most effective engines of economic and social mobility in the United States. The School is led by a faculty dedicated to the highest standards of research and to the university’s democratic and public obligations. Read more about the Colin Powell School.

About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.