In a sector often dominated by algorithms, jargon, and cold transaction logic, Sharon Davidor is quietly bringing something rare into the world of finance: empathy.
From her early work in investment banking to her growing influence in shaping how capital flows into emerging businesses, Davidor represents a new kind of financier, one who not only understands balance sheets but also the human cost of financial exclusion.
“Finance is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used to build access, or to entrench inequality,” she says. “The difference is whether you see people or just portfolios.”
From Ghana to Global Finance
Davidor’s story begins in Accra, Ghana, where she grew up surrounded by complex realities: vibrant entrepreneurial energy coexisting with uneven access to funding, financial literacy, and even basic credit systems.
It wasn’t lost on her that many of the sharpest business minds she knew — market women, traders, tech dreamers — were locked out of the formal finance world.
That early exposure shaped her worldview, even as her career took her across borders and into the fast-paced world of global investment banking.
At CIBC Innovation Banking, Davidor worked with high-growth technology companies, helping them secure structured capital to scale. But unlike many in her field, she never viewed financial advisory as detached from people’s stories.
She was known not just for her technical excellence, but for asking clients why they were building and what impact they hoped to make.
“I’ve sat with founders who are brilliant but unheard, who just need one institution to trust them. Sometimes, that’s what opens the floodgates.”
Reimagining Onboarding, One Analyst at a Time
Her impact wasn’t just outward-facing. Internally, she reinvented how deal teams trained junior staff by creating a comprehensive onboarding guide, a “deal process cheat sheet” that demystified complex workflows and lowered the barrier to entry for analysts from nontraditional backgrounds.
“I realized that finance is full of unspoken rules,” she explains. “If we want more diversity, we need to stop assuming everyone speaks the same language on day one.”
That mindset followed her into the Cornell Johnson School of Management, where she earned her MBA and was selected as a Forté Fellow, an honor reserved for top women in business leadership.
At Cornell, she led Career Work Groups, ran technical training sessions, and mentored peers pursuing careers in investment banking, many of them first-generation professionals.
She also served as a Teaching Assistant for Cornell’s Investment Banking Immersion program, helping others succeed in one of the most selective recruiting paths in the world.
Finance as an Engine for Inclusion
Davidor is now a Technology Investment Banking Associate at Jefferies LLC in New York, one of the most respected names in global investment banking.
She has already contributed to major transactions, including the $1.9 billion acquisition of IAS by Novacap, a deal that underscored her ability to combine technical execution with big-picture perspective in the fast-moving technology sector.
But even as she builds her career in these elite rooms, she remains grounded in a mission that goes beyond transactions.
“True transformation isn’t when one person gets in,” she says. “It’s when the system shifts.”
Outside of her direct roles, Davidor has contributed to the field through peer-reviewed journal work, professional publications, and conference presentations that explore themes such as inclusion, trust, and process design in modern finance.
She is also a Fellow of the National Institute of Credit Administration (NICA) and the Commonwealth Academy of Leadership and Management (CALM), both of which recognize professionals driving ethical, sustainable change in business systems.
Why Trust Matters Now More Than Ever
At a time when fintech is exploding and more institutions are grappling with inclusion, Davidor believes trust, not just technology, is the missing link.
“We’re obsessed with speed and scale in finance. But if people don’t trust the system, none of it is sustainable.”
That’s why she advocates for more human-centered systems, from how banks design loan products to how they train analysts and evaluate early-stage companies. Her work, both in the field and behind the scenes, is helping shift how modern finance sees people, risk, and reward.
The Bigger Picture
In a world of faceless spreadsheets, Sharon Davidor is a reminder that trust isn’t a line item, it’s the foundation. Whether training analysts, structuring capital for founders, or advising on billion-dollar deals, she carries the same through-line: finance must serve people.
Her story underscores that the most powerful innovations in finance aren’t algorithms or products, but professionals who bring both technical skill and deep empathy into the rooms where decisions are made.
(Originally published on August 4, 2025)
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