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HONOREE
MICHAEL K. PEARSON
Michael K. Pearson (“Mike”) is the Principal of Michael K. Pearson Consulting. He specializes in business strategy and operations consulting for for-profit and nonprofit C-Suite decision makers. He is also a Partner at Iron Stone Real Partners and a Senior Advisor at Econsult Solutions. Mike is an experienced CEO that founded and led prominent Philadelphia-based Union Packaging, LLC. (UP). The triple bottom-line UP was sold, in May 2019, to LBP Manufacturing LLC., a subsidiary of Pritzker Private Capital. From January 2013 to May 2019, Mike also served on the Evolution Insurance Company Board of Directors.
A widely respected leader with more than 24 years of social entrepreneurial experience, Mike has a personal ethos of giving back to the community and works to instill those values in the business community. Never looking at charitable giving as an expense, he sees support of programs for the underserved and economic development as investments in the nation’s future.
He serves on several boards, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Philadelphia Foundation, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, Evident Change (nka: the National Council on Crime and Delinquency) and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Mike also serves on the City of Philadelphia’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council and the Pathways to Reform, Transformation and Reconciliation Steering Committee.
He was formerly involved with the boards of the William Penn Foundation, OIC Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, the Committee of Seventy, ACHIEVEability, the Economic and Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, the Governor’s Manufacturing Advisory Council for Pennsylvania, the U.S. Small Business Administration National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board, the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey and St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children, among others.
His lifelong commitment to community stewardship and fostering diversity in business has earned him numerous awards, including the EY Greater Philadelphia Social award, the Urban League of Philadelphia Community Leadership Award and many others.
Mike is a frequent public speaker, serving as a guest speaker, panelist and presenter for many local and regional industry and commerce groups, as well as academic institutions, such as Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Bard College, Saint Joseph’s University’s Haub School of Business, Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business and the University of Pennsylvania.
Mike served as a United States Army Officer in the Persian Gulf War, where he received the Bronze Star. Prior to UP, he worked at Pfizer, Wyeth Laboratories (nka: Pfizer) and Westvaco (nka: WestRock). He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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