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MEET
LAMAR
LaMar Lyons has been a resident of the 35th District for over 30 years.
After the untimely passing of his wife, a highly respected Afro-Latina educator who was the Principal at Wills Rogers Elementary School in the Santa Monica/Malibu School District, and National Merit School instructor, Lyons raised his minor children as a single parent. In keeping with her belief in success through education, his children are all very accomplished. His oldest son was an All-State, All City, All CIF football player at Saint Monica High School. He played with three Rose Bowl teams for the University of Washington and was on the National Championship Team, going on to play professional football for the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Ravens. His youngest son attended Andover, a graduate of Georgetown and an Associate Banker with J.P. Morgan; his daughter is a graduate of NYU-TISCH Dance with a minor in Spanish and a product of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and a professional dancer with Mark Moris out of New York
Lamar Lyons' parents were union workers at Douglas Aircraft, where he worked upon graduating from high school.
His work ethic started early in the private sector:
• Paper route in elementary school
• Box boy at Safeway in high school
• McDonald’s flipping hamburgers
• Assembly line worker at Douglas Aircraft
• Warehouse worker at GI Trucking Company
Lyons is currently the Vice President of the San Pedro Central Neighborhood Council,
which covers the Port of Los Angeles and part of a network of Neighborhood Councils, providing knowledge of community issues and stakeholders concerns. In addition, he is an officer in the San Pedro Community Network Organization that is the sponsor for the annual Juneteenth ceremony in San Pedro.
Lyons is a graduate of UCLA, majoring in Philosophy and Math and holds a law degree from Howard University, with a specialty in Legislative Law.
He entered UCLA on the High Potential Program which was a program for students that were from blue collar labor economically impacted communities.
At UCLA, Lyons was Student Body President and Commissioner of Community Services and one of the founding members of the UC Student Lobby; while Student Body President, Lyons also was Chairperson of the UCLA Student Leadership for the student strike of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement.
Lyons was his 11th grade Class President at Geoge Washington High, as well as 2-year varsity lettered athlete in baseball and football. In high school Lyons was the first Afro-American to achieve Eagle Scout from South Central Los Angeles.
Before working in the private sector, he worked in the public sector for two community-based organizations and four public officials:
• Advance Foundation that served extreme physically and emotionally challenged youth
• Childcare Development Services (CCDS) a community-based organization serving preschoolers and provided meals on wheels for senior citizens
- California US Senator - Alan Cranston
- California State Assemblyman - Elihu Harris
- Los Angeles City Councilman - Gilbert Lindsey
- Chief Legislative Office for the City of Los Angeles - Ken Spiker
Lyons was the first Black Chief of Staff in the California State Assembly working for AssemblyMAN Elihu Harris and was the point person in passing the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday legislation in California.
Lyons also was the Consultant for California Assemblyman Elihu Harris’ Select Committee on Fair Employment Practices.
In the private sector, Lyons was a municipal finance investment banker having worked at L.F. Rothschild, Morgan Stanley, and an owner of a boutique investment banking firm.
He is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Burch Capital Partners, a venture capital firm. Its mission is investments that offer job creation, pull growth back and provide wealth enhancement for economically challenged inner city and inner-ring suburban neighborhoods.
Prior to founding Burch Capital Partners, Lyons was Executive Managing Director of Rideau Lyons, a FINRA broker dealer.
He was responsible for Rideau being recognized in the 25th anniversary issue of Black Enterprise Magazine in its June 1997 listing of investment banking firms, ranking Rideau as the number two investment banking firm out of some sixty-five, information provided by the Securities Data Company. As an investment banker, Lyons underwrote and sold municipal bonds for affordable housing, education, infrastructure, and transportation projects. Lyons is a proponent of affordable housing having structured over $3 billion in housing projects.
Burch Capital Partners (“BCP”) is a private Double Bottom Line Equity Fund founded in 2016. Its purpose is to invest in companies that produce top-tier venture capital returns. The intended goal is to generate market-rate return, which will: provide social impact by identifying investments that offer job creation, wealth enhancement for economically challenged inner cities and inner-ring suburban neighborhoods.
