Announcing Matthew Manning of ROYAL On Global Committee
Matthew is a storyteller, brand consultant, and social entrepreneur with a creative propensity and a passion for equity. His foremost passion is to collaborate with the world’s most audacious ideators, innovators, and entrepreneurs to tackle pressing global issues with creativity, inclusion, intention, and impact. He was a participant on our Building Inclusive Communities panel at Glappitnova last year. We are super excited to have Matthew on the global committee.
Matthew is the son of many places. He is a biracial US immigrant and dual-citizen born in Sweden to a white mother and a Black father. He grew up in Stockholm, Minneapolis, and Chicago, and has engaged for over nine years in philanthropy across Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Matthew is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of ROYAL, a transmedia storytelling platform that exists to celebrate the complexity of Black life. Through various programs, services, and content platforms, ROYAL is shifting the global narrative representation of Black life, infusing more nuance and more humanity. Today, ROYAL is a coalition of over 60 artists, activists, entrepreneurs and allies committed to a collective vision of inclusive representation.
Matthew’s work is informed by a BA (Art History) and MA (Writing and Publishing) from DePaul University, as well as years of sweat equity in ventures related to poverty relief, sexual violence, education, global health, and community development. Matthew has been a Goodwill Ambassador for World NGO Day and a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum. He currently lives in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood and is a member of the Chicago Ideas Co-op.