Emmanuel Fortune, 36, is the first executive director, as of Feb. 1, of the 6-year-old PS27 Foundation, which is expanding education and leadership programming for startup founders and small business CEOs.
It also seeks partnerships with local and national organizations to promote entrepreneurship. It works with PS27 Ventures, which invests capital in early-stage technology and other companies in high-growth markets.
Among its new events, the foundation intends to launch the Black Entrepreneurs Forum in June at the University of North Florida Adam W. Herbert University Center.
Fortune brings more than 14 years of nonprofit experience. It is a family mission. His wife, Rachael Tutwiler Fortune, is president of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund.
I was born and raised in Miami in a community called Little Haiti.
My parents are Haitian. They immigrated in the 1980s for opportunity. I am number seven of 13 children.
My mom eventually became a single mom and raised 11 of us who were born here. Two were still in Haiti.
She found work as a maid cleaning hotel rooms and raised 11 children on $7,000 a year.
A lot of organizations provided the wraparound services to make my journey possible.
There’s a lot of power in organizations that partner with families and the community to provide opportunity.
I’ve always had a heart for this sector.
I’m the first one in my family to go to college.
Since me, everyone else has gone, although not everyone has finished. But that’s important.
It means that when someone does something like that, it changes the narrative of what’s possible.
What we want to understand is what makes that happen, where one out of 11 beats the odds.
A big part of what drives me and inspires me is my mom’s example.
That is a big, big piece of why I do the work that I do, why I’m committed to the social sector, why it’s important to me that everyone who has talent has access to opportunity.
I have the great privilege and honor of being the inaugural executive director of the PS27 Foundation.
Most of the work has been volunteer board service and a lot of folks from PS27 Ventures donating their time.
My responsibility will be to build up the organization and help fundraise to make sure that we have sustainability.
PS27 Ventures is the brainchild of Jim Stallings, who is the chair of the foundation and the president of the venture capital firm.
They work with startup entrepreneurs and CEO founders and help invest in companies that are primarily led by women, folks of color or veterans.
He wanted to provide mentorship, so he started the foundation.
That’s been the tagline of the organization, that leadership matters.
We deliver three programs – the Female Founders Forum, Leadership Week and this will be our first year launching the Black Entrepreneurs Program.
We will have a CEO and founders showcase where venture firms will be able to meet black entrepreneurs.
A lot of these folks have never had someone in their portfolio who is a person of color. We are securing a fantastic set of speakers in top leadership positions from around the country.
We are planning on doing the event around Juneteenth at the University of North Florida Herbert Center. My goal is to make sure that we have our title sponsor and other partners in place.
I most recently came from The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
Before that I was in Washington, D.C., at a family foundation.
I’ve also done corporate and institutional philanthropy in Pittsburgh and New York.
I came to Jacksonville for Teach For America as part of the original cohort that taught in this city.
The first person I met was my wife. She was a volunteer at Teach For America and picked me up at the airport. I was the last person on the van.
There were 13 or 14 people with all of our luggage. She could see I was someone willing to squish in and make it work. She appreciated me being flexible and accommodating.
My wife was born and raised in Jacksonville.
I married into this wonderful city, so I claim it as my own.
This is where we met and where we raised our young children and our not-so-young children.
Our 20-year-old son is in Gainesville at the University of Florida. We have a 3-year-old daughter and one more coming into the nest in April.
Her biggest inspirations are her children.
Rachael fought the odds. As a teen parent, she had to navigate many people who doubted what she could do, and she went on to do amazing things.
It’s about being purpose-driven and if I had to pick a person who is an exemplar of leadership, it’s my wife.
