Michael K. Pearson

Michael K. Pearson (“Mike”) is the President & CEO of Union Packaging, LLC (“UP”). Established in 1999, UP is a Yeadon, Pennsylvania based earth-friendly Foodservice and Quick Service Restaurant (“QSR”) single-use paperboard packaging maker. UP was born from a 1996 business plan written while Mike lived in Philadelphia’s Fairmount section. Three years later, he started making FDA-compliant packaging after winning a combination of equity/debt financing facilitated by coaching from the Wharton Small Business Development.

Food is now served around America, the Middle-East, the Caribbean and Latin America in clamshell, folded, and nested cartons made with UP’s earth-friendly converting technology. Clients have included QSRs, supermarkets, convenience stores, and foodservice companies. UP raw material and equipment suppliers are located as far away as Brazil, China, Finland, and Switzerland.

UP employs and develops people from Metro-Philadelphia’s African-American, Asian-American and Latino neighborhoods. Non-profit partnerships have resulted in career opportunities for public school graduates with learning differences, ex-offenders, and documented new arrivals from more than fifteen nations. Mike currently serves on the executive boards of the William Penn Foundation, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and chairs the Philadelphia HealthMichael Pearson Management Corporation board. He is a Philadelphia Regional Port Authority commissioner. He also is a member of the board of the National Council on Crime & Delinquency.

Mike has previously held leadership positions with the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention, the United Way of Greater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey, Council Member on the Economic and Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Governor’s Manufacturing Advisory Council for Pennsylvania, Committee of Seventy, U.S. Small Business Administration National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board, ACHIEVEability, St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children, the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center, Philadelphia Safe and Sound, the Community YMCA of Eastern Delaware County, the Big Picture Alliance, Team Pennsylvania Foundation, and the Delaware County Community College Regional Advanced Manufacturing Committee.