Gregory White is President & CEO of LEARN Charter Schools where he is leading an entrepreneurial effort to grow the network from two schools serving 600 students to 16 schools serving 8,000 students. Prior to LEARN, White was the Vice President of Strategy & Operations for the Chicago Community Trust—a $1.8 billion community foundation that granted over $115 million annually. In 2003 and 2005, Gregory White taught the summer term course at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management named “Entrepreneurship and New Venture Formulation”. In addition, he has taught executive education sessions for the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the Inner City Teaching Corps on subjects such as: “Angel Investing”; “Intrapreneurship”; and “Growth Through Acquisitions”.

He has over 15 years of investment, entrepreneurial and finance experience. He was a Co-Founder and Partner of a private equity firm, Chicago Venture Partners, L.P. (CVP), where he identified, evaluated and structured investments in 15 rapidly growing companies and provided assistance to the fund’s portfolio companies. Prior to CVP, White gained investment experience working at Salomon Brothers, Continental Bank and Shorebank.

At Shorebank, he conceived, designed and managed an advanced entrepreneurial development program, The Runners’ Club, which trained 84 entrepreneurs who raised $14 million in capital and created 350 new jobs. During his tenure, he provided accountability, encouragement and technical assistance to these entrepreneurs on how to launch or purchase a company, raise capital, and recruit an advisory boards of directors. In addition, he has worked with ten emerging companies in: raising capital; writing business plans; evaluating and hiring senior managers; structuring compensation plans; improving decision making processes; and developing and executing growth strategies

White graduated with academic honors from Brown University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Economics and Development Studies. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Gregory serves on the board of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, National Louis University, Christ the King High School, and the Chicago Transit Authority Citizens’ Advisory Board.