Pratt Institute’s Board of Trustees has elected David O. Pratt to the board. His appointment was effective on July 1, 2009.
Pratt is a management consultant with more than 30 years of experience in finance, administration, strategic planning, and entrepreneurship. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering in 1974 and went on to earn his MBA in 1977 from the university’s Wharton School, where he specialized in finance and entrepreneurial management.
After working at Philadelphia National Bank and First Pennsylvania Bank, where his clients included Ford Motor Company, Sunbeam, and Whirlpool, he became vice president of the pension consulting company Hamilton Johnson, where he oversaw a variety of investments. He later served as head of
administration at the newly-formed mental health software company Applied Innovations and at Fineman & Bach, P.C., where he played a lead role in modernizing the legal firm’s operations. He also provided strategic planning, business management, and crisis management expertise to a number of law firms, and launched the specialty food company, Fabulous Foods.
Most recently, as a private consultant, Pratt has helped numerous nonprofit organizations build their business models, strengthen financial reporting, improve board functioning, develop effective mission statements, and enhance their fundraising operations. These include the Philadelphia Charity Ball, one of the nation’s first organizations to combine charitable work and social events, and the Pohoqualine Fish Association, where Pratt helped Pocono township landowners and officials develop conservation easements to protect the valley’s resources and living environment.
Pratt is the great-great grandson of Pratt Institute’s founder, Charles Pratt, and the son of the school’s former president Richardson Pratt Jr. He is a trustee of the Spionkop Charitable Trust, which makes grants to pre-selected organizations primarily for the arts and environmental purposes.