Photo by Nancy Andrews

David Motley (MBA 1988) grew up in Lincoln-Larimer, a struggling neighborhood in Pittsburgh’s East End. He remembers the soot on the snow in the cold winters of the 1960s. And if he looked south, toward the Monongahela River, he could see the steel mills that were its source. “Even in the darkest of night, you would see the glow from the mills that lined the river,” he recalls.

Now Motley sees an entirely new city. Along the river are the offices of medical and technology companies. “Pittsburgh has successfully transitioned from an old economy to a new one,” Motley says. He has been a small part of that evolution—as the cofounder of a professional services firm, an investor, a developer, and a corporate board member. “The challenge and the opportunity is to work to ensure all Pittsburghers benefit from this transition,” he adds.

Helping to revitalize his hometown had not been part of what Motley calls “the grand plan.” After HBS, he spent two decades working for the chemical, glass, and coatings company PPG Industries, living in eight cities along the way. He finished his corporate career at the Pittsburgh-based medical device company Respironics and embarked on his entrepreneurial journey, where he discovered a city of “outsized opportunities,” a small town masquerading as a big city, where serendipitous connections occur more easily than in larger metropolises: “We say, ‘It could only happen in Pittsburgh.’ ”

One such introduction came through one of Motley’s closest friends, another venture capitalist. He wanted Motley to meet a woman who had founded the nonprofit Black Tech Nation to advocate for Black entrepreneurs. From that conversation grew Black Tech Nation Ventures, a fund the three of them cofounded in 2021. The fund has raised $44 million in committed capital, has invested in the first five of an intended 30 portfolio companies, and is advancing the goal of growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Black and diverse founders.

Another opportunity came out of a discussion with a group of corporate leaders in the city. When Motley commenced his public board service about a decade ago, he observed that there was a severe lack of representation in boardrooms in Pittsburgh. “So, what are you going to do about it?” he remembers someone asking him. With that catalyst and funding from regional corporations, Motley and his wife, Darlene, launched the African American Directors Forum, which connects companies with Black board candidates and builds community among Black board members across the country.

Motley’s Pittsburgh network has also drawn him into the affordable-housing space. “Environment drives behavior,” Motley observes, quoting another Pittsburgher, the community leader and MacArthur Award recipient Bill Strickland. Motley, who believes affordable housing is a key part of Pittsburgh’s future, is one of three partners on a $20 million housing development in an East End neighborhood that includes green space and arts and community venues. The development, an adaptive reuse of a school building and former Jewish synagogue, received statewide recognition for incorporating the highest standards for green buildings, an energy microgrid, and an urban farm. “If there’s one person who ends up on a different trajectory as a result of living in that complex, it’s an overwhelming success,” he says.

His big break: “I won the lucky parent lottery and ended up in the right house, with the right father and the right mother. They created a safe place in a neighborhood that was going through some challenges, and created a motivating environment that was all built around being the best that you could be.”

A typical day: “What is that?”

Building a team: “I’m not doing any of this stuff by myself. I’m doing it with a team of people who, in most cases, are more knowledgeable; I’m the laggard.”

The power of mentorship: “I am quite certain that there are a lot of David Motleys out there who had just as much potential as I did, who, but for their circumstances, were not able to realize their full potential.”

On the links: “I absolutely love playing golf. I’m an exceedingly average player, but I have an aspiration not to die playing bad golf.”

Out of office: “I paint landscapes and portraiture.” It’s a hobby Motley’s pursued since the age of four.

Fork in the road: “Engineering versus art school. My dad made that decision for me, and I ended up in engineering school.”

Parenting advice: “Both my wife and I have sought to give our children the benefit of our success but not the burden of it. I think what they would say is that the constant refrain from us has been, ‘If you’ve done the best that you can, then we will celebrate with you no matter what the outcome is.’ “

On his desk: Birthday cards and notes from his wife. “Those are the only things on my desk.”

His pitch for Pittsburgh: “As a newbie to Pittsburgh, you can be connected to the power brokers in very short order. In a much larger city, it will take a long time to navigate all the gatekeepers to be able to get in touch with the decision makers.”

The most Yinzer thing: “Sports. Pirates, Steelers, Penguins, anything black and gold. Pittsburgh just reverberates around its sports teams.”

Life lesson: Learned in HBS professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s class. “The real engine behind being successful is figuring out how to work with people. Everything I’ve done has come out of relationships that I’ve had. I have not had one opportunity that was just something that appeared without a personal connection.”

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