NELSON COOPER IV
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Nelson is a Vice President at the PNC Financial Services Group within the Corporate & Institutional Banking (C&IB) line of business. Specifically, Nelson is a Relationship Manager in the Pittsburgh Middle Market group, working with companies between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue. Before this role, Nelson was a senior underwriter in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) and Professional Sports Finance verticals.
Nelson is actively involved in PNC's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives and has held various leadership positions across the enterprise. Most notably, Nelson served as the Strategy Lead for Empowerment and Inclusion Capital I, the 1st PNC-sponsored Special Purpose Acquisition Company ("SPAC"). Nelson is an Advisory Board Member for the Corporate & Institutional Banking Black Colleague Acceleration Initiative and a PNC Black Leaders Forum member.
Outside of PNC, Nelson is actively involved in the community and has served on several non-profit boards.
Nelson has been recognized with the following awards for my professional & community work:
• Pittsburgh Business Times 30 Under 30
• PNC Market All-Star - Corporate & Institutional Banking
• Junior Achievement Inspiring Success Young Professional Award – Business & Finance Category
• Pittsburgh Male Emerging Leader of the Year – Get Involved! Inc.
• Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network – Outstanding Policy & Advocacy Award
• Who’s Next Pittsburgh: Community Leaders & Social Activists – 40 Under 40 Award Winner
I moved to Pittsburgh from Seattle, Washington, after graduating Summa Cum Laude from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in December 2015. At NCCU, I was a member of the NCAA Division 1 baseball team and majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
BRIAN JACOBSON
Co-Founder & President
During the day, Brian works for a Fortune 500 global technology company in the field of Network Planning & Engineering, designing custom fiber-optic networks across the Northeastern US & Canada. Brian is a lifelong Pittsburgher, growing up on the City's East End, a product of the Pittsburgh Public Schools (Peabody Highlander for life!), and a University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences graduate. Brian is a proud father of six sons, including 2022 MLB Draft pick, Tanner Jacobson (10th Round - St. Louis Cardinals).
Brian has consistently been a passionate advocate for inclusive, diverse, and equitable athletic programming for many years, specifically in the inner-city of Pittsburgh and surrounding communities. Brian has been involved in coaching and providing baseball & softball programming for over ~30 years for players ranging from 8 years of age through college. Brian has coached countless community-based teams in the RBI Citisports League (formerly, the City of Pittsburgh’s B.I.G. League), Allderdice High School, and founded the Pittsburgh East Baseball “show up & play” program, among several others.
Brian previously served as the Program Director for the Pittsburgh Pirates Reviving Baseball & Softball in Inner Cities (RBI) Program through a partnership between Major League Baseball, the Pirates Charities, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western PA. After Brian’s first year serving as the program’s leader, in 2018, he successfully facilitated a partnership with the City of Pittsburgh’s Parks & Recreation Department to finally create a formal RBI league for the first time since the RBI program was founded in Pittsburgh in 1994. During his tenure, the Pittsburgh RBI program had 4 regional championship berths and won the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Junior Regional, earning Pittsburgh its first berth in the RBI World Series, since 2005. The Pittsburgh Pirates RBI program grew from ~200 youth to over 1,400 youth during Brian's tenure.
Although Brian routinely directs the spotlight away from himself and toward the mission of the programs in which he is involved - he has been honored with many awards over the years, including the recent Dr. Tom Baker Memorial Community Leader Award at the 2019 Get Involved Inc’s Service Summit. Brian’s biggest reward is not personal recognition, but rather to see when the young people he impacts are on a path of success...