Nia Batts

Nia Linder Batts is the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Union Heritage, one of the nation’s leading minority-owned, diversified investment management companies. She is also a General Partner of its venture arm, Union Heritage Ventures; the only majority African-American owned, and majority women-owned venture capital firm in the state of Michigan.

A former entertainment and media executive, most recently serving as the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Social Innovation at ViacomCBS Inc. (now Paramount), Batts is a seasoned corporate executive, entrepreneur and investor.

She co-founded Detroit Blows, a non-toxic salon and impact-driven retail store, that served as a model of inclusive community redevelopment in her hometown Detroit’s downtown core. She continued to Chair its affiliated philanthropic arm, Detroit Grows, making micro-grants to Detroit-based women entrepreneurs, and to programs helping women enter or reenter the work force.

Alongside Sophia Bush, Billie Jean King and Allyson Felix, Batts serves as a Strategic Advisor to First Women’s Bank: a first-of-its-kind, purpose-driven bank with a mission to grow the economy and advance the role of women within it. The Bank is the only women-founded, women-owned and women-led commercial bank in the country with a strategic focus on serving the women’s economy.

Most recently, Batts was named to the Advisory Board of the Michigan Founders Fund, the leading founders network in the state of Michigan, working to advance efforts to make Michigan the most successful, inclusive and community-minded startup ecosystem in the country. She also serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors or Birth Detroit and on the Museum Committee of the Cranbrook Art Museum.

Batts earned a BA from Columbia University, Executive Education Certificates in Corporate Social Responsibility, and Alternative Investments, from Harvard Business School, a Certificate in Venture Capital, from University of California, Berkeley Law School, and a professional certificate in Film Producing from New York University. She is an MBA candidate at the University of California, Berkeley – Haas School of Business.