He has a multipronged vision that includes steering more of UMB’s procurement budget to minority-owned businesses in West Baltimore and giving local children hope they could be future business owners.
In his role as the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) second President’s Distinguished Scholar, Luke Cooper, JD, MBA, has a multipronged vision that includes steering more of UMB’s procurement budget to minority-owned businesses in West Baltimore and giving local children hope that they could be those business owners of the future.
On the second point, Cooper stands as an inspiring example of someone who rose from disadvantaged youth to distinguished achiever, first as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer and now as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. During a “Welcome to UMB” reception May 2 at Forno Restaurant & Wine Bar, he told a crowd of 40 guests about how a short plane ride at age 12 started him on that upward trajectory.
“I grew up in Bridgeport, Conn., which is a city about half the size of Baltimore but with about 150 percent of its problems,” said Cooper, who has lived in Baltimore for the past 20 years. “One Saturday morning, my mom said, ‘We’re going on a trip,’ and she took us over to Sikorsky Airport. We got in a tiny Cessna and flew over parts of Bridgeport. I could see the projects for the first time from that distance, and it created a distance in me, a distance from that reality.
“What it told me was that where I am is not who I am — that my life could take a different shape and a different direction than the one that I was given,” he added. “I hope through our efforts at UMB, we can demonstrate to the kids in West Baltimore that they can be so much more than their circumstance. And I think tech entrepreneurship is one of those paths for Black kids in this city.”
Cooper certainly knows all about tech entrepreneurship. In 2007, he sold his first company, CTS, a cybersecurity software firm, to defense contractor CACI. In 2020, he sold his company Fixt, an on-demand mobile device support and repair startup, to risk management company Assurant.
He is a partner at San Francisco-based Preface Ventures and the CEO of Latimer, a $250 million venture capital fund he founded in 2021 with the mission to elevate the experience of Black tech entrepreneurs; provide training curriculum and advisory services to founders who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color; and facilitate strategic connections among investors, Fortune 1000 acquirers, and high-growth companies.