Respected global marketing expert, creative executive, and entrepreneur Kwame Taylor-Hayford ’05 is interested in helping young people of color interested in an advertising career to realize their aspirations.
In 2020, Taylor-Hayford endowed the Saturday Morning Scholarship in Advertising at SUNY Geneseo.
“The advertising industry has a challenging time recruiting young, talented, and diverse candidates to be a part of the business,” said Taylor-Hayford, the co-founder of the creative company Kin. “I just wanted to provide a little investment to support students interested in getting into a creative business.”
The Saturday Morning Scholarship is named for a non-profit Taylor-Hayford co-founded to generate ideas for promoting greater awareness of racial bias and injustice and change perceptions of those issues.
“Our ambition as an organization is to address racial bias and injustice, so it made a ton of sense to set up a scholarship to help support students who might be excited to explore a creative career or start their own creative business,” said Taylor-Hayford, who is also co-owner of a fashion boutique in Buffalo with his wife, Tamara Tribula ’06.
Taylor-Hayford, son of Patrick R.D. Hayford, a distinguished Ghanaian diplomat with the United Nations, and Kakra Taylor-Hayford, a renowned architect, spent much of his adolescence living abroad. He resided in major cities like Johannesburg, Accra, Cairo, and New York City. Yet, despite his cosmopolitan upbringing, he developed an appreciation for the secluded charm of Geneseo.
“It was refreshing to be in an environment that was so different. It’s incredibly beautiful, calm, and tranquil,” Taylor-Hayford says. “You see the breadth of what life in the country can offer, and I found people in the town to be warm, very open, and very generous.”
On campus, Taylor-Hayford said his academic experience at the College sparked curiosity. He also embraced the idea that he would learn just as much outside the classroom as in class.
During his four years, the business administration major was a resident assistant, worked in the Computer and technology lab, served as director of business of the student union, and participated in affinity groups, including the Black Student Union and the Latino Student Association.
“There were so many things that for me were very exciting, and I made sure to maximize the experience, and I take a similar approach as I navigate my career today,” says Taylor-Hayford. “Geneseo is a very special place, and I had a great experience there that set me up for the life and career I have today. It’s a place that helped me write my future.”
