Who We Are

Unleashing Potential (UP) has been established by Jerry and Eva Posman as a private funding entity that provides financial resources to individuals with extraordinary potential but who lack access to financial capital. 

Jerry Posman has a long and varied career in education, business, and nonprofit administration. Jerry is the current CEO of the UP Foundation and also a Certified Business Mentor with SCORE (the mentoring arm of the Small Business Administration). 

Posman has had a varied professional career, having worked in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Previous to the establishment of the UP Foundation, Posman worked in various capacities for the City University of New York (CUNY) for over 50 years. Most recently, he was a Special Advisor to the President of Hunter College, where he developed college policy, generated revenue based on entrepreneurial initiatives, and oversaw data collection and analysis on numerous studies into HIV/AIDs-related preventative and curative programs

Before joining Hunter, Posman was the Chief Operating Officer at Medgar Evers College, where he was responsible for enrollment management, fundraising, marketing, long-range financial planning, economic development initiatives, and information technology. Prior to that role, Posman served as Vice President for Finance and Administration at The City College of New York and as Chief Operating Officer at York College. In these roles, he oversaw campus budgets, facilities planning and management, adult and continuing education, and building the York College Foundation. 

From 1977 to 1988, he served as the CUNY Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance and then as Deputy Chancellor for Administration and Finance on the New York City Board of Education. After leaving the Board of Education, Posman owned and operated a series of small businesses in health care, medical services, and international travel. In addition, he served as the Senior Vice President of the education sector of the National Executive Service Corps, which deploys business executives to work as consultants with nonprofit organizations.

Posman's love of business and community outreach started with the five years he worked in the Peace Corps where he served as a volunteer teacher in Tunisia, the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps program in Sri Lanka, and the Director of Programs and Training for the Peace Corps in Washington.

Posman received a BA in English Literature from the CCNY and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has taught in the doctoral program at Columbia Teachers College and has served on several boards of nonprofit organizations.

The UP Foundation Support Team