Courtesy of Spelman College
Frank Baker II, founder and managing partner of Siris, a leading private equity firm focused on investing and driving value creation in technology and telecommunications companies, and his wife, Laura Day Baker, an interior designer and philanthropist focused on empowering historically underserved communities, recently announced a significant gift to support the creation of Spelman’s forthcoming Center for Innovation & the Arts.
The gift will enable Spelman to complete the Center for Innovation & the Arts infrastructure, and name the Frank Baker and Laura Day Baker Theater Performance Room within the Center.
“From helping clear balances for graduating students who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to establishing scholarships, Frank and Laura have shown tremendous support to our students,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. “This new gift is a testament to their commitment to Spelman and the success of our students.”
In 2020, a gift from Frank Baker and Laura Day Baker covered the spring tuition balances of nearly 50 graduating seniors and established a scholarship fund to ensure that high achieving seniors have the financial resources to graduate.
The new Center for Innovation and the Arts will challenge Spelman students to use technology inspired solutions for urban problems, create an entrepreneurship incubator for high performing students, establish high level partnerships with innovation partners in academia and industry.
The space will be designed with a “front porch” atrium that will link Spelman to its Westside community. Complete with community-facing spaces, including as a second gallery for the Spelman Museum of Fine Art, The Porch will also include a dance performance studio, a high-tech digital black box theatre and a small café/retail outlet that faces a public plaza.
The new CI&A will be the home for Spelman’s Innovation Lab, the Center for Black Entrepreneurship and will cluster together numerous arts departments now scattered across the Spelman campus into a vibrant community of innovators, collaborators, artists, musicians and scientists.
About Frank and Laura Day Baker
Frank and Laura Day Baker live in Florida and are married with three children, the oldest of whom is a twelve-year-old girl, which makes this gift even more meaningful to them.
Mr. Baker is a Founder and Managing Partner of Siris. Siris is a leading private equity firm focused on investing and driving value creation in technology and telecommunications companies. Siris has raised nearly $6.0 billion in cumulative capital commitments.
He started his career in the mergers and acquisitions group of Goldman Sachs and earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Mr. Baker currently serves as a trustee of the University of Chicago and has been a major supporter of its New Leaders Odyssey Scholarships. Mr. Baker is also a board member of the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization.
Laura Day Baker is an accomplished interior designer, having had her work featured in Vogue, The New York Times, and Traditional Home. She is a dedicated philanthropist focused on underserved communities, academics, and the arts. Mrs. Baker serves as a trustee of The Studio Museum in Harlem.
