Michael K. Pearson

Michael Pearson is a partner at commercial real estate development company Iron Stone Real Estate Partners. He also runs his own consulting company, Michael K. Pearson Consulting, and is a principal of Manumission Real Estate

Holdings, LLC. A successful entrepreneur, Mr. Pearson created Union Packaging in 1999 from a business plan he had developed three years earlier while living in Philadelphia. The company is a Yeadon, PA-based earth-friendly foodservice and Quick Service Restaurant (“QSR”) single-use paperboard packaging maker. He sold the company in 2019 after a successful 20-year run.

A former United States Army officer who served in the Persian Gulf War, Mr. Pearson is a Philadelphia Regional Port Authority commissioner and currently serves on the executive boards of the William Penn Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and chairs the Philadelphia Health Management Board. A widely respected leader with more than 23 years of social entrepreneurial experience, Mr. Pearson serves on the many additional non-profit boards. He possesses a personal ethos of giving back to the community and works to instill those values into those around him.

A recipient of many awards, Mr. Pearson has been named an “Outstanding Board Director” by the Philadelphia Business Journal, and he and Union Packaging were recognized by the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council as “MBE Advocate of the Year.” The company employs and develops people from Metro-Philadelphia’s African-American, Asian- American, and Latino neighborhoods, and partners with non-profits to create career opportunities for public school graduates with learning differences, ex-offenders, and documented new arrivals from more than 15 nations.