Taj Ahmad Eldridge is an American Business executive with Include Ventures and formerly the Senior Director of Investments at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). Eldridge spearheads a division geared towards facilitating the successful growth of sustainability high tech startup companies engaged in entrepreneurial research and development of advanced technologies with the intent to create high-tech jobs throughout California.

Taj Ahmad was born on February 14 in Dallas, Texas in the late 1970's to U.S. Ahmad and Peg Eldridge, graduating from Wilmer-Hutchins High School in the early 90s.

After high school, Eldridge graduated from Texas A&M University, majoring in Literature and Poetry in 1997 and served as a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Eldridge moved to Las Vegas, Nevada as a banker with Wells Fargo (formerly First Interstate Bank), before relocating to Los Angeles, California a year later.

Taj began his career in the late 1990’s as a Corporate Banker for tech companies & others businesses with Wells Fargo US Corporate Banking Division. He completed his Master of Business Administration from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and studied abroad in Santiago, Chile at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez and at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

in 2006, Taj moved towards the Asset Management industry as an Investment Manager with UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) in Beverly Hills, California, working with startup founders, ultra high net worth individuals, and other high profile clients. During this time, Eldridge began his Ph.D. studies in Geopolitical Economics from the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, later studying abroad with mobile startup Textopoly in Porto, Portugal at the Universidade do Porto for the Digital Transformations Project. Eldridge served on the board of Advisors for digital agency Textopoly (now Xtopoly) based in the Eureka Building in Orange County. Xtopoly was recently acquired by global brand Vincit.

In the late 2000's, Eldridge served as Chief Economist of TRW Investments, an alternative investment firm based in Los Angeles, California. Eldridge served as a Judge for the UCLA. +Knapp Venture Capital Competition, the Big Ideas Berkeley Competition, and the California Dreamin’ startup competition at Chapman University’s Launch Labs. During his tenure at Launch Labs as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Eldridge was an advisor to Voter, a Chapman University startup founded by Hunter Scarborough that was recently acquired by Brigade.

In 2013, Eldridge partnered with famed fashion designer Waraire Boswell to create an online delivery fashion brand called WBA with products made in the United States and worn by celebrities such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Oliver Stone, Ryan Gosling, and Lawrence Kasdan. Waraire Boswell was recently tapped to bring a new hip redesign to the entire uniforms of McDonald's, providing a modern look to match the designer's style.

Eldridge served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the brand from 2013-2015, helping the apparel company transition from custom apparel to online sales and in select high profile stores in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and in China in stores in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.

After leaving WBA, Eldridge was an equity partner and interim CEO startup of ILTG Media, with properties such as ilikethisgrape.com, partnering with some of the largest wine producers in Napa and Sonoma.

ILTG Media, co-founded by Naushad Huda and Kathy Lajvardi, created media and content to expand the focus of the consumption of wine by pairing the product with movies, music, and film.

ILTG worked with various winemakers to begin branding personalities in the wine industry, working with a number of entertainment agencies to create platforms to make winemakers the new celebrity chefs.

ExCITE, founded over 2 years ago as the Center for Innovation Technology & Entrepreneurship, focuses on accelerating new startups by providing a location for the growing advanced tech startup community, mentorship by successful entrepreneurs and venture partners who have been down the same path, and creating access to financial resources, partnerships, and information to help entrepreneurs succeed.

ExCITE is unique in the Accelerator startup space because of the direct collaboration with the City of Riverside, University of California Riverside, private industry, and the County of Riverside.

Startups that have been residents at ExCITE include Sutro, founded by University of California Riverside graduate and Forbes 30 under 30 awardee Ravi Kurani and Zyante, with products such as Zybooks, founded by University of California Riverside faculty Dr. Frank Vahid.

In addition to working with the strong local community resources and partners in Riverside, Eldridge assembled national partnerships in legal services, IP, accounting, banking, and creative services to help streamline startups in the region, modeled after the QB3 program at the University of California San Francisco.

Eldridge recently partnered with Boulder, Colorado-based SendGrid founded by University of California Riverside graduates Tim Jenkins, Isaac Saldana, and Jose Lopez. The partnership with SendGrid allows the company’s highly successful SendGrid Accelerate program to be available for ExCITE resident startups. Eldridge also recently created a strategic partnership with Stripe's new legal offering Atlas and is currently negotiating with a large auto service provider to allow for entrepreneurs at UC Riverside to have access to travel to ExCITE.

ExCITE, EPIC (the region's proof of concept center), and the newly created Highlander Venture Fund managed by Silicon Valley veteran Dave Schwab, will help startups from the University and community thrive as well as help Riverside become an emerging innovation center to attract research-based startups in the areas of biotech, agtech, digital health, water/energy, and enterprise IT.

He served as the Director for theExCITE Accelerator under the Office of Technology Partnerships (OTP) at the University of California at Riverside in Riverside, California. ExCITE is a private + public collaboration between the business leaders, the County of Riverside, the City of Riverside, and the University of California Riverside. He left in June 2018.

Taj has also been tapped to join the Board of Advisors for San Francisco-based startup KYC Hospitality, which is focusing on Saas and Artificial Emotional Intelligence in the hospitality industry.

The startup is led by Dina Yuen.

Taj is currently the Senior Director of Investments at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

His focus on helping create high tech green economy jobs throughout all of California.