Melissa Bradley
Melissa Bradley is Founder and Managing Director of New Capitalist™ - providing business development, strategy, and capitalization assistance to emerging and social entrepreneurs. Its mission is to leverage human, financial and social capital to create economically profitable and sustainable individuals, businesses and communities. Since its inception in 1999, Melissa has facilitated over $20MM in private equity transactions for seed stage companies and generated an average of 20 percent return on behalf of investors. She created proprietary investment vehicles instrumental in capital sourcing for minority-owned firms, as well as provided strategic planning, marketing, and business development services to early stage companies. Through the advisory and consulting services side, Melissa generated and managed over $1MM in business development annually.
She is also the founder of Positive Impact™ - a collaborative initiative to promote diverse voices and visions within independent media. Launched at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, PI's objectives are to promote ethnic and cultural diversity within independent media through communication, capacity building and capital. Since its inception, Melissa has secured 15 project partners including Sundance Film Festival & Sundance Institute, NY Latino Film Festival, IFP-NY, Screen Actors Guild, OneVibe TV/Film Group, LLC, etc. She has also facilitated over 50 investor meetings that supported over $1MM in investments to media makers of color and established Media Training Fund (MTF) grant program to assist media makers of color which has provided over $20,000 in grants. As part of her founding role of Positive Impact™, Melissa authored “Introduction to Media Investing For The Creative and Investment Communities” - a practical step by step “how to” guide designed to give media makers detailed instructions on prospecting, receiving, managing and returning an investment.
Other previous professional affiliations include Vice President at UBS in the Private Client Group, Financial Regulatory Fellows with the Department of Treasury, Office of Thrift Supervision and Founder and President of The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI), a nonprofit organization, with an annual budget in excess of $2M, which maintained 16 U.S. and 3 international affiliate sites.
Ms. Bradley’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the School of Business, and a Master’s in Business Administration in Marketing from American University.
Ms. Bradley has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards and has been involved with numerous community-based youth organizations. Melissa has been named to “Who’s Who among Outstanding Americans,” “Who’s Who among Executives & Professionals,” honored at the White House as one of “Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,” and has received the JC Penney Golden Rule Award for Community Service. Ms. Magazine selected Melissa as one of 21 for the 21st Century and she was the recipient of the First Annual Do Something Brick Award for Community Leadership. Ms. Bradley has been featured in numerous publications including Fast Company, Inc., Vibe, Who Cares, Black Enterprise, Success, Georgetown University Magazine, Entrepreneur, Swing, Essence, Emerge, Build, and Mademoiselle Magazines.
Melissa currently holds board positions with Georgetown University Board of Governors, LISTEN, Inc. (Co-Chair), Social Venture Network (Chair), Coop America (Chair), Creative Capital, Tides Network and Tides Foundation. She is a Founding Member of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, Advisory Board member of the New York International Latino Film Festival and serves as an Expert Chair in Entrepreneurship for AIESEC International.