Radhika Reddy

  Radhika Reddy, MBA, MA-Tax
Partner, Ariel Ventures, LLC
Direct Phone: 216-344-9441
Direct Fax: 216-373-7356
Cell: 216-577-2420
Email: rr@arielventures.com


Radhika Reddy has 35 years of experience, including 25 years in USA in the areas of economic development finance, real estate development and finance, international business, and other business advisory services, and 10 years in India as an international banker. Ms. Reddy is the founder of Ariel Ventures, LLC (2001), Ariel International Center, LLC (2010), Ariel Economic Development Fund, LLC (2010), Ariel Distribution Center, LLC (2013), Ariel Pearl Center, LLC (2016), all 100% women-owned and minority firms. Ms. Reddy provides public-private project finance, combining comprehensive economic development financing incentives with private equity and debt, supporting business attraction and expansion, and stimulating economic development in Ohio and other states nationally.

Ms. Reddy and her partners have provided financial and business advisory services for over $2.0 billion in public-private finance transactions nationally, utilizing a variety of federal, state, local tax credits and incentives, grants, public and private loans and equity. Ms. Reddy and Ariel Ventures have gained national recognition as experts in the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) area and pioneered the development of the first state-of-the-art, comprehensive NMTC compliance, reporting and CDE management software application in 2003, which has been approved for integration with the CDFI Fund's (Treasury Dept.) online community impact reporting system, and is used by CDEs nationally. In 2003 Ariel Ventures collaborated with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority to create a Community Development Entity (CDE) and secured a total of $140 million in NMTC allocations since 2003, and has used it to make investments in the low income communities of Northeast Ohio.

Ms. Reddy and her partners have developed a catalytic historic 68,000 s.f. building to create the Ariel International Center, a one-stop international business incubator, office, and intercultural event center in Cleveland. They also developed a 26,000 sf building to create the Ariel Distribution Center with plans to create a foreign trade zone to attract global companies to the region. They also co-developed the historic 50,000 s.f. Baker Electric building as office and research/lab facility along Euclid Avenue in the Cleveland Health Tech Corridor, designated as an Ohio HUB of Innovation and Opportunity. They are currently developing the Ariel Pearl Center in Old Brooklyn, which is a 26,000 sq ft facility. In 2010, they also founded Ariel Economic Development Fund, a 100% women-owned and a minority-owned venture capital CDFI and CDE, that provides equity and loans to small businesses or real estate businesses located in qualified low income areas in the state of Ohio.

Ms. Reddy and her partners at Ariel Ventures also help US companies meet the challenges of operating in a global marketplace by providing international business services including, entry strategy, finance and tax, transfer pricing, foreign direct investment, exports and imports, with a focus on US and India. Ariel Ventures has wholly-owned subsidiaries in India and China.

Ms. Reddy is a published author and has presented at various national and international conferences in the areas of international business and tax, and federal tax credits. Her international tax article on "Global tax incentives for renewable energy (2001)" was not only published in national tax magazines and text books, but was also presented by her at the Asian Pacific Conference on International Accounting in Brazil, in 2001, to 350 delegates from 40 countries.

Ms. Reddy is on the Ohio Governor's Asian American Advisory Board. She also served on the Board of Regents Task force for Commercialization of Technology, and the Global Markets advisory team for the State of Ohio. Ms. Reddy was nominated by the Cuyahoga County Executive to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Cuyahoga County Community Improvement Corporation, the chief review body for economic development lending activity done through the Cuyahoga County Department of Development. Ms. Reddy is also a board member of New Markets Tax Credit Coalition in DC, Global Cleveland, India Ohio Chamber of Commerce, The International Entrepreneurs (TIE Ohio), Northeast Ohio International Business Network, International Community Council, and Asian Services in Action.

Ms. Reddy was a finalist for the 2014 E&Y "Entrepreneur of the Year" award and Smart Business "Women Who Excel" Award. She was awarded the 2007 Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Cleveland Leadership award and the 2002 International Business Woman of the Year award for Northeast Ohio. She was also recognized by Crains as a 2014 Women of Note, and by Inside Business as a 2009 and 2003 Athena Award finalist for her outstanding accomplishments as a woman business leader. Ms. Reddy was nominated to the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2009, a program that builds and strengthens regional leadership by selecting annually a small group of recognized and established leaders to participate in the curriculum.

Ms. Reddy has an MBA in Finance & MIS from Case Western Reserve University and a Masters in Accounting / Taxation, from Cleveland State University. She enjoys travel, music, philosophy, politics, economic development, community development and philanthropy. Ms. Reddy and her partners co-founded a charity, Ray of Light International, Inc., in 1997, to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine and education for destitute women, children and the aged, with a focus on third world countries.