VIRGIL ROBERTS

Virgil Roberts, vice chair of the board and chair of PEN’s Board Development Committee, is a partner in the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts in Santa Monica, CA. Previously, he was president of Dick Griffey Productions (DGP) and president of Solar Records, the largest African-American-owned record company in America. Prior to Solar Records, Mr. Roberts formed the law firm of Manning & Roberts, which represented a number of artists and companies in the music industry as well as the NAACP in the Los Angeles school desegregation case Crawford v. Board of Education. Mr. Roberts has been actively involved with his community and the legal profession.

Currently, he is chairman emeritus of the board of the California Community Foundation, co-chairman of the board of the Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement (The Alliance), and board member of Community Build. He is also a trustee of Occidental College and the Marlborough School. Having served as chairman of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) and for two years as chairman of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, Mr. Roberts continues to work on the board and the executive committee. He also served as treasurer of the Los Angeles Private Industry Council, and as a board member of the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN).

After graduating from UCLA with a bachelor of arts in political science, Mr. Roberts received his juris doctor from Harvard Law School.