Lunch with a Founder - featuring Robert Wynn

These part educational, part networking events are the perfect way to meet other founders in the region, learn from other people's entrepreneurial journeys, and get plugged in to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Wisconsin.

This month will share his founder story.

Robert Wynn is the Founder & President of CLIMB USA.

Robert Wynn’s career spans four decades of leadership, advocacy, and innovation in the arena of economic development and empowerment of underserved communities. Along the way, Mr. Wynn has founded and led a variety of capacity building enterprises such as UEDA (Urban Economic Development Association), Asset Builders of America Inc., Land Rich, Akamai LLC and ProSquared LLC.

Currently Mr. Wynn is the founder and president of CLIMB USA Inc. CLIMB is an acronym for “Communities Learning to Invest and Mobilize for Business”. The nonprofit organization promotes intensive investment education and facilitates wealth creation through Community Based Investment Enterprises, which are an innovation on the traditional investment club model.

Prior to opening his own businesses, Mr. Wynn was the Financial Education Officer for the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions. In that capacity, Mr. Wynn created or co-created a number of ground-breaking financial education programs including the statewide network of Money Conferences, the Millionaires Clubs, the Finance and Investment Challenge Bowl and the Intelligent Arts Showcase. Mr. Wynn also produced the first ever “Governor’s Summit on Venture Capital” which helped to enhance the private equity infrastructure in Wisconsin.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Wynn served as the Director of Minority Business Development at the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. While at Commerce, Mr. Wynn developed the policy and legislative framework which established the Early Planning Grant and Minority Business Development Funds. These novel sources of capital, which included multiple revolving loan funds, were conceptualized and created through the efforts of Mr. Wynn with the support of key legislators and the governor. During the fifteen-year life of the program, the Minority Business Development Fund provided ten million dollars in direct loans and leveraged an additional seventy million dollars for the benefit of hundreds of Wisconsin-based minority-owned firms while impacting more than 2800 jobs.

Mr. Wynn earned his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina where he was a Morehead Scholar, and he earned his law degree from the University of Michigan. He is a former board member of BetterInvesting, and a former member of the Federal Reserve’s Consumer Advisory Council. And he currently serves on the board of directors of the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association and American Players Theater.

Robert Wynn is the recipient of numerous distinguished service awards. Among them, he was the 1990 U.S. Small Business Administration’s Minority Advocate of the Year, he received Better Investing’s George Nicholson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and he received the (Wisconsin) Governor’s Financial Literacy Legacy Award in 2022. In recognition of his pioneering work to introduce Community Based Investment Enterprises (CBIEs) as a viable tool of economic development, BetterInvesting established the “Robert Wynn BetterInvesting Club Leadership Award” in his honor at its National Convention in 2022.

Mr. Wynn and his wife, Millie Jones, live in Madison, Wisconsin.

This in person event is FREE and open to members and non-members of StartingBlock Madison. Lunch will be provided.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

StartingBlock | The Spark Building, 821 East Washington Avenue, Madison, United States