Linnea Conrad Roberts

Founder and CEO

GingerBread Capital

Linnea believes that women-led businesses are changing the world for the better. They’re also really smart investments that are too often overlooked and undervalued by investors. 

To change that scenario, Linnea launched GingerBread Capital (GBC) in 2016 to build and invest in women’s entrepreneurial success–and encourage other women to do the same. It’s fitting that after retiring from a successful 30-year career in investment banking, one of her first investments in a women-led venture under the mantle of GBC was the 2016 feature film, “Equity,” about women on Wall Street.

Linnea spent the latter half of her career on Wall Street as a Partner in the technology sector at Goldman Sachs, where she led many a start-up from launch to IPO. She also served as Goldman’s diversity ambassador to recruit, retain and promote more women into leadership positions with the firm and within the finance industry.

Linnea continues to mentor women pursuing financial careers through her involvement with her alma mater, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she received an MBA in Finance. She also holds a BA in Business Administration and Management from Valparaiso University. 

An active philanthropist with a focus on education and health, Linnea is chair of Teach for America, New York City’s board of directors; and serves on the board of The Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit organization devoted to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders.

Linnea is also a member of the board of directors of New Leaders, a nonprofit devoted to developing transformational leaders in education and ensuring high academic achievement for all students, especially those in poverty and students of color. In partnership with New Leaders, Linnea launched the Roberts Award for School Innovation to recognize outstanding New Leader Principals who develop innovative solutions to address critical challenges within their school communities. With her husband George Roberts, Linnea is also a trustee of the Roberts Foundation, which supports education and poverty alleviation programs in the San Francisco Bay area.

Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D

President and Chief Executive Officer

UNCF

Since 2004, Dr. Michael L. Lomax has served as president and CEO of UNCF, the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support to African American students and a leading advocate of college readiness: students’ need for an education, from pre-school through high school, that prepares them for college success. Under his leadership, UNCF has raised more than $3 billion and helped more than 110,000 students earn college degrees and launch careers.  Annually, UNCF’s work enables 60,000 students to go to college with UNCF scholarships and attend its 37 member historically black college and universities (HBCUs). 

At UNCF’s helm, Dr. Lomax oversees the organization’s 400 scholarship programs, which award 10,000 scholarships a year.  He also launched the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building, which helps UNCF’s member HBCUs become stronger, more effective and more self-sustaining.   

Under Dr. Lomax’s leadership, UNCF has fought for college readiness and education reform through partnerships with reform-focused leaders and organizations and worked to further advance HBCUs with Congress, the administration and the Department of Education.  He serves on the boards of the KIPP Foundation, America’s Promise, Teach for America and the Studio Museum in Harlem. 

Before joining UNCF, Dr. Lomax was president of Dillard University in New Orleans and a literature professor at UNCF-member institutions Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.  He also founded the National Black Arts Festival, was a founding member of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and served as chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlanta, the first African American elected to that post.