Dear UMB Community,

I’m incredibly pleased to welcome the next UMB President’s Distinguished Scholar, Luke T. Cooper Jr., JD, MBA. Mr. Cooper is a lawyer, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and trusted advisor to business, academic, and government leaders.

He is the chairman and CEO of No Mud No Magic, Inc., which seeks to bridge the gap between high-potential Black startup founders and technical training, investors, and merger-and-acquisition options. Mr. Cooper also is the founder and general partner of Baltimore-based Latimer Ventures, a $250 million venture capital fund focused on creating outcomes for founders who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. He founded Fixt, a venture capital-backed technology startup that was acquired by Assurant, a Fortune 300 company, in 2020. He started his career as an attorney at DLA Piper and then State Farm.

Mr. Cooper has served on the UMB Foundation Board of Trustees and the TEDCO Board of Directors. In addition to having a JD from Syracuse University, he holds an MBA from Babson College, a certificate in mergers and acquisitions from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University.

As the President’s Distinguished Scholar, Mr. Cooper will dedicate his time to helping UMB design a strategy to strengthen our engagement with and support for minority business enterprises, particularly in the West Baltimore community. He also will engage and advise faculty, staff, and students on key Universitywide entrepreneurial activities.

You’ll be seeing information soon on opportunities to interact with him throughout the academic year. I’m pleased that Mr. Cooper will be our 2022 President’s Distinguished Scholar, and I’m delighted to welcome him more fully into the UMB family.

Sincerely,

Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS

President