About Arthur W. Thomas, III

Mr. Arthur Thomas, III is an experienced business leader and innovative strategist committed to the empowerment of people and sustainable community development. He is able to leverage intersectional insights of faith, business, and philanthropy to unlock programmatic solutions with multi-stakeholder benefits.

Currently, Mr. Thomas is the Director of Entrepreneurial Initiatives and Inclusive Economic Opportunity for The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. This role provides a platform for advancing cross-sector leadership collaboratives that create strategies for increasing equity and empowerment. Mr. Thomas recently graduated from a master’s program at Yale Divinity School to enhance his ability to evaluate the ethical outcomes of community empowerment programs and build strategic partnerships to reduce socio-economic inequities in underserved populations. Prior to that, Mr. Thomas had a career in finance and residential real estate development. He also serves on the board of directors for Community Health Network, an organization that uses “Emotional Emancipation Circles” as a tool to address systemic and actual trauma in minority communities. Mr. Thomas is vocal about faith’s contribution to justice work. He is currently the co-chair of the Faith in Action outreach ministries at Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church, and is in the ordination process with the American Baptist Convention. Overall, Mr. Thomas is a healer at heart, and passionate about using innovation, real estate, and entrepreneurship as a treatment for disrupting the reproduction of poverty outcomes in under-resourced neighborhoods.