Jerry Posman, of the UP project, Funds SPEAKHIRE

Jerald (Jerry) Posman has a long and varied career in education, business and nonprofit administration. Posman is the founder and currently the CEO of the UP project. Unleashing Potential (UP) has been established as a private funding entity that provides financial resources to individuals with extraordinary potential but who lack access to money.

Previous to the establishment of UP, Posman was a Special Advisor to the President of Hunter College, one of the largest campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY). He was at Hunter since September, 2019, and was tasked with developing college policy on several issues; and participating in generating revenue based on entrepreneurial initiatives. In addition, Posman was selected by the Hunter College President as Senior Consultant to the Pride Research Center, which does data collection and analysis on numerous NIH funded studies into HIV/AIDs related preventative and curative programs.

Before joining Hunter, Posman was the Senior Vice President/Chief Operating Officer at Medgar Evers College (MEC), a unit of CUNY, located in central Brooklyn and offering both two and four year degrees. He was responsible for administrative operations, especially enrollment management, institutional advancement (fundraising and marketing/communication), information technology, and public safety. Posman also was a key principal on strategic and long-range financial planning; economic development initiatives; and capital construction. He had held this position beginning March 2014 but has had a longstanding relationship with City University.

Posman was Vice President for Finance and Administration at The City College of New York (CCNY), the oldest and most-recognized unit of the City University of New York (CUNY). He had direct responsibility for all budget and finance matters, human resources and enrollment management; and was Chief Financial Officer of the CCNY 21st Century Foundation. Posman was also involved in matters concerning facilities (including on-campus living) and information technology. From 2004 to 2011, Posman was the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Administrative Affairs at York College, another CUNY senior college. At York, he had overall responsibility for numerous non-academic functions including: budget, business and finance; enrollment management; facilities planning and management; information technology; human resources, adult and continuing education; building the York College Foundation; and the college’s performing arts center.

Posman has had a varied professional career, having worked in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

He started at CUNY in 1973 and from 1977 to 1985 was the Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance. From CUNY, he went to the New York City Board of Education where he was the Deputy Chancellor for Administration and Finance until 1988.

After leaving the Board of Education, Posman owned and operated a series of small businesses in health care, medical services and international travel. He was involved in a social entrepreneurship venture with one of the city’s best- known settlement houses. Posman also served as the Senior Vice President in charge of the education sector for the National Executive Service Corps, which deploys business executives to work as consultants with nonprofit organizations.

Posman started his career working for the New York Times and then spent five years in the Peace Corps. He served as a Volunteer teacher in Tunisia, the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps program in Sri Lanka and the Director of Programs and Training for the Peace Corps in Washington.

Posman received a BA in English Literature from the CCNY and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has taught in the doctoral program at Columbia Teachers College. Posman has served on several boards of nonprofit organizations and was the treasurer of Project Enterprise, which fosters entrepreneurship and extends microloans to individuals in economically underserved communities throughout New York City.

We thank Jerry for his generous contribution of $25,000 in support of developing tomorrow's leaders!