Founder and CEO

Naeem Muhammed

Working in Finance has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had. It saddens me that more people who look like me haven’t shared this experience. Both of my parents migrated to America without any formal education, working blue-collar jobs to support our family. My mother, my shero, always encouraged me to focus on education.  She sacrificed her dreams so that I could achieve mine. 

I was raised in River Park Towers, arguably one of the most dangerous housing complexes in the Bronx and in New York more broadly. In high school, my friends and I would coordinate travel schedules as our “hood” was in the midst of a mini war with a neighboring town. If one was caught alone in that “hood,” he’d undoubtedly get “jumped” (attacked by an outnumbered group of people) or even worse. 

I saw a lot of drugs and gang violence in my adolescent years. Very few people in my community graduated college and I surely never met any Investment Bankers or Finance Professionals. I never knew what a career in Banking looked like until I got to college and even then, the industry was very opaque to me. By the grace of God, I’ve been blessed to have a 6-year career in the industry. It’s difficult to aspire to be something that you don’t know exists. Kids in the Bronx have a different type of grit and tenacity – the type of skill set that I think prepares them for a career in finance. The DreamT Foundation simply aims to take those inherent skills and cultivate and package them in a way that helps students land opportunities “on the street.”

I’m neither an exception nor an anomaly. I’ve been blessed with some amazing opportunities and it’s time to pay it forward. I’m very far from where I want to be, but close enough to begin giving back to my community. I hope to change the narrative for children in the Bronx, who have to navigate extenuating circumstances just to survive. I want to bring positivity and generational wealth into our communities, as I truly believe that poverty and lack of education brings the worst out of us. Every child has the right to dream. Every child deserves to live, not just survive. 

Sincerely,

Naeem T. Muhammed