Arthur Thomas
Arthur W. Thomas III received his Bachelor’s in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University. Upon graduation, he worked in finance for many years while preparing for the transition to investing in real estate and community development. Once transitioned, Arthur focused on residential rehabilitation and acquisition for both his personal investment company and in a consultation capacity for other investment organizations. With a heart for his hometown of Newark and experience in redevelopment, Mr. Thomas partnered with the City of Newark to beautify depressed areas with the construction of new multifamily residences.
During this time, Arthur became highly active in a local church. He formed the Divine Grace Foundation to empower youth with academic proficiency, financial literacy, mental health care, and workforce development skills. Arthur and his wife, Dr. Jennifer Pierre-Thomas, are leading board members in this foundation and are developing programs and raising capital to cultivate these initiatives locally and abroad in Haiti and Nairobi.
Arthur recently graduated from a master’s program at Yale Divinity School to enhance his ability to evaluate the ethical outcomes of community empowerment programs and build strategic partnerships to reduce socio-economic inequities in underserved populations. He has also been invited to serve on the board of directors for Inextricably Bound (a community development organization); he is co-chair of the Faith in Action outreach ministries at Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church and is in the ordination process with the American Baptist Convention. Arthur is a healer at heart and passionate about using innovation, real estate, and entrepreneurship as a treatment for disrupting the reproduction of poverty outcomes in under-resourced neighborhoods.
He founded “Divinnovation” at Yale Divinity School, an organization that partners with local incubators and accelerators to foster the incubation of faith-based initiatives and social impact work reinforced with business acumen and innovation tools to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and scalability. Most recently, Arthur joined the Community Foundation as the Director of Mission Investing and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems– providing the platform for using entrepreneurship and collaborative cross-sector leadership as a strategy for equity and empowerment. Currently, he’s returned to full-time entrepreneurship as a consultant to startups, nonprofit and corporate executives, and social sector leaders around developing economic development and impact investing strategies for wealth creation and upside.
Arthur loves to travel with his wife, shop, socialize with family and friends, learn about other cultures, read, play pool, dance, and spend time counseling anyone who needs help.
Title: Director of Mission Investments and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
Organization: The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
