On March 1, 1998 the Treatment Action Group (TAG) announced the appointment of Odell Mays as its first Executive Director. A Stanford and NYU alumnus and former director of the New York Peer AIDS Education Coalition, Inc., an organization dedicated to HIV prevention among street youth, Mays brings to TAG a background in both business and fiscal administration as well as AIDS advocacy. He began his career as a senior buyer for IBM and was later a tax consultant for Deloitte & Touche. He held several other corporate positions before leaving for the non-profit world in 1994 to become Director of Finance and Administration for the Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health at Hunter College Brookdale Campus. Mays previously served as a board member of Gay Men of African Descent and currently holds the position of treasurer of the Board of Directors of the New York City Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. He has also been active for nearly a decade with God’s Love We Deliver.
Mays said, “The level of commitment and passion in TAG is impressive, as is the focus, intensity and intelligence of TAG’s staff, Board and volunteer work on issues related to AIDS research and advocacy. I am excited to be joining TAG’s efforts to speed up AIDS research focusing on efforts to develop effective treatments for AIDS and a preventive vaccine.”
TAG’s policy staff welcome the addition of Odell as Executive Director to our efforts and believe he will help us to maintain our leadership role in formulating new policy responses to the AIDS crisis.