Sabrina Ayala, Chief Financial Officer at Green Dot Public Schools National, Most Empowering Women Leaders of 2022 Profile

Sabrina Ayala
Chief Executive Officer
Delta Financial Associates


Sabrina Ayala, Chief Financial Officer at Green Dot Public Schools National, Most Empowering Women Leaders of 2022

“Building A Brand with Ethics”

Sabrina Ayala, CEO Delta Financial Associates, moved to the United States from Guatemala when she was three. On the first day of Kindergarten, she didn’t speak English, and the immediate challenge was how to communicate her basic needs to the teacher. Little did Sabrina know that her strength would come from turning perceived shortcomings into opportunities to prove herself for at least the next twenty years. “In high school, inspired by the character Alex P Keaton of Family Ties and after all my stock picks increased in value in an Economics class project, I knew I wanted to change my stars by working in Finance,” says Sabrina. “Fast forward 13 years and a lot of hard work, I graduated Summa Cum Laude, Top Woman Graduate of my University.

Upon college graduation, Sabrina competed for and got a spot in what would become the last analyst class of the one of the most prestigious and oldest Investment Banks in the U.S, Kidder Peabody. Shortly after the bank was sold, she joined a boutique Valuation Consulting firm, Stern Stewart & Co, where she learned to value businesses and develop compensation plans based on value-based growth, ultimately leading to her acceptance at one of the top business schools in the country. Armed with a solid work ethic and just the right amount of curiosity, Sabrina spent a dozen years on Wall Street in investment banking, valuation consulting, and institutional equity trading, which required grueling hours, intelligence, curiosity, and old-fashioned grit.

Hailed as a problem solver focused on strategy, Sabrina tripled the number of students served and entered three states while at Green Dot. The Finance and Accounting team had to grow in size, sophistication, and general mindset to serve on a national scale while achieving best-in-class outcomes. “Nonprofits are often born in the minds of innovative thinkers who want to lead change. My extensive financial background provides a unique set of skills and tools to ensure they navigate the financial aspects with an equally innovative financial approach,” she says. “The goal of Delta Financial is to provide knowledgeable teams that work alongside the visionary leaders. According to Forbes, 50% of nonprofits fail to reach scale or stall within a few years due to lack of strategic planning. Delta Financial will be that support and guidance.”

Sabrina hopes to inspire team members by creating a collaborative team where all voices are encouraged. “Early in my career I worked for a boutique firm that was very lean, so I was in Executive meetings and Board of Directors meeting when I was very young. I had great mentors and had to learn quickly so I like to use similar coaching with my teams even if it means more preparation and greater investment of my time.”

GD has been first to market time and time again – one of the first charters in CA, one of the only CMOs that serves high school students because we felt it was the right thing to do from a mission perspective as this was the last chance for our students. GD was first to market in Washington, early to market in Tennessee, and early to do transformation schools. “My personal work has been first to market or early stage on new market tax credits and bond financings to charter schools, to date, I have structured and executed over $200MM in facility financing deals to build schools in impoverished neighborhoods,” says Sabrina.

“In 2018, I started Delta Financial to serve organizations that would not be able to hire a CFO with my background but need financial strategy and/or facility financing support. I have been able to work with established organizations that want to take on new growth to education disruptors that want to change the way we do high school and college education,” adds Sabrina. “My next goal is to expand my team and services to bring best in class Finance and Accounting services to a wide range of education organizations. The issue of finding best in class Finance and accounting while fitting into the nonprofit budget has been the problem and is one that I intend to solve. As an operator, I have a unique perspective on the collaboration that can exist between the financial teams and mission facing teams of the organization.”


Company

Delta Financial Associates

Management

Sabrina Ayala
Chief Executive Officer
Delta Financial Associates

Description

At Green Dot, we believe in working towards something bigger. Our mission is to help transform public education so ALL students graduate prepared for college, leadership, and life. We make this possible by hiring passionate teachers, administrators, and staff who believe in our students'​ potential.


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