African American Entrepreneurs: Help our kids see who they can become.

Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey has a net worth, as of 2018, of $2.8 billion. Oprah has taken on the titles of the richest African American of the 20th century, the first multi-billionaire black person, and the greatest black philanthropist in American history.

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” -Oprah

She is a talk show host, producer, actress, and philanthropist. She is most known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Winfrey was born in rural Mississippi on January 29, 1954. She was born into poverty to a single teenage mother. Throughout her childhood and early teens, she was molested and became pregnant at the age of 14. Her child died at infancy. She was then sent to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, in Tennessee. While in high school there she landed a job in radio and soon became a co-anchor of the local evening news at the age of 19. At the age of 22, she was recruited to co-anchor the 6 p.m. news at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. Winfrey was later fired for this job, told by her boss she was “unfit for television news.” WJZ hired her for a then failing talk show, People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey continued the talk show for eight years.

“Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you were meant to be, and to begin to honor that in the best way possible for yourself.” -Oprah

Winfrey was then recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M Chicago. Within several months she took the show from third rated to first place. This success led her to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg’s film The Color Purple, which led to a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film later was adapted for the stage, and Winfrey helped as one of the producers of the now 11-time Tony-nominated musical.

The Oprah Winfrey Show launched in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program, with placement on 120 channels and audience of 10 million people. She soon launched her production company, Harpo, Inc., of which she is chairman and CEO, and gained ownership of The Oprah Winfrey Show from ABC. Winfrey began “Oprah’s Book Club,” as part of her talk show, entering the publishing world. The program launched unknown authors to the top of the bestsellers lists.

In 2000, Winfrey debuted her monthly magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine and by 2011 she had launched her own television network, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Winfrey has remained an activist and philanthropist most of her life, owning Oprah’s Angel Network, which raised more than $50 million for charitable programs. An activist for children’s rights, a bill she proposed to Congress was signed into law, creating a nationwide databased of convicted child abusers. She founded the Family for Better Lives Foundation and in 2002 was named the first recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

Daron Taylor

Dr. William Pickard
Dr. William Pickard is a businessman, author, educator, and Chairman of Global Automotive Alliance. He is also a Co-Managing Partner at MGM Grand Detroit Casino, CEO of Bearwood Management Company, and co-owner of five African-American owned newspapers, including the Michigan Chronicles.

Born in the small town of LaGrange, Georgia, Pickard rose from humble beginnings to the entrepreneur giant that he is now. He began his career in the industry as a fast-food franchisee in Detroit, Michigan. Around 1989, after amassing enough funds, he founded an automotive manufacturing company which he then grew to one of the country’s largest provider of contract logistics, warehousing, freight forwarding, procurement, contract assembly services, and quality containment known as Global Automotive Alliance. The company now has over $ 500 million in net sales, and is operating in the United States and Canada.

Global Automotive Alliance is comprised of several member companies in the logistics industry such as Vitec, ARD Logistics, Global SQ, and Key Logistics Solutions.

Dr. Pickard is a business and civic leader in the Detroit metropolitan area who has been a steady part of several civic and business development boards such as African Development Foundation, Standard Federal Bank, and the National Urban League, to name a few. He has been the Director of Michigan National Corporation and its subsidiary Michigan National Bank since 1989, as well as member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, and the Executive Board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

As a huge proponent of education, Dr. Pickard is a consistent donor for scholarship and school improvement funding; as well as speaker in talks and seminars on entrepreneurship. He also released the book “Millionaire Moves: Seven Proven Principles of Entrepreneurship” in which he shared the story of his engrossing professional journey in the hopes of creating a new generation of skillful, driven entrepreneurs who can someday beat the odds, like he did.

Kenneth Irvine Chenault
Kenneth Irvine Chenault, an American business executive, was the chairman and CEO of American Express from 2001 until 2018, making himself the third black CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Chenault was born June 2, 1951 in Mineola, New York. He attended Bowdoin College in his undergraduate years and completed his law degree at Harvard University.

Before joining American Express in 1981, Chenault worked as an attorney. He worked at Rogers & Wells in New York City before moving on from the legal professional and taking on a consultant role at Bain & Company. During his time as a consultant he was mentored by Mitt Romney, fellow Harvard Law School alumni, Massachusetts governor, and 2008 presidential candidate. Mitt Romney revealed in a 1997 Ebony interview that Chenault has a clear vision and the ability to get things done in confusing circumstances.

When Chenault joined American Express he took a position in the languishing merchandizing department. He revived the department, lead his team to success, and launched corporate partnerships with many companies, like Delta Airlines. In 1997, he became the president and chief operating officer. By 2001, he was name CEO. The September 11 attacks in New York took place across the street from the American Express headquarters and Chenault lead the company through the personal and economic devastation.

Chenault serves as an active public servant holding positions on many civic, academic, and professional organization boards. Some of those boards include Bowdoin College, the NCAA, and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. He devotes much of his time to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. His success and partnerships throughout the community have led him to speak at commencements at universities like Howard University, Northeastern University, and Wake Forest University. His work as a public servant has lead him to receive the prestigious Third Lantern Award.

Mellody Hobson
Mellody Hobson is the president of the Chicago-based Ariel Investments and sits as a director for big companies, like Dream Works Animation, Estee Lauder, and Starbucks Corporation.

Hobson was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 3, 1969. She received her undergraduate degree from Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

After graduation, Hobson began interning for Ariel Investments. She eventually worked her way to Director of Marketing and Senior Vice President. By 2000, she landed the role of president for a company managing over $13 billion in assets. Arial Investments became one of the largest African American owned mutual fund and money management companies in the United States.

In 2009, Hobson created and hosted Unbroke: What You Need to Know About Money, a show on ABC featuring celebrities like the Jonas Brothers, Oscar the Grouch, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Hobson chairs and leads many organizations outside her role as president for Ariel Investments. She became the first African American woman to head the Economic Club of Chicago in 2017. She also is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Arieal Investment Trust, a regular contributor on financial issues on CBS This Morning, and a spokesperson for the annual Ariel/Schwab Black Investor Survey. Other boards include JPMorgan Chase & Co., the Chicago Public Education Fund, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Sundance Institute.

Hobson has won many awards and nominations including Time’s 2015 Time 100 List, Ebony magazine’s 20 Leaders of the Future, Working Women Magazine’s 20 Under 20, the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow, Esquire’s America’s Best and Brightest, and The Wall Street Journal’s 50 Women to Watch.

Kenneth Frazier
Kenneth Carleton Frazier is the chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., a pharmaceutical company. He initially joined the company as general counsel, directing the company’s defense against litigation over the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. He is the first African American and second lawyer to lead a major pharmaceutical company.

Frazier was born December 17,1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, a janitor, motivated him to be successful by teaching him to believe he could do anything. This led Frazier to pursue and receive his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and complete his law degree at Harvard Law School.

Frazier started his career in Pennsylvania as a lawyer, eventually working his way to partner. He spent much of his time as a lawyer doing pro bono work, helping to release a man on death row wrongfully accused in Alabama. It was not until 1992 that he joined Merck as general counsel during a joint venture with another pharmaceutical company and fully joined general counsel of Merck in 1999. Frazier held various leadership roles, such as chairman of the board, before securing his role as CEO.

Robert L. Johnson
Robert Johnson is an American media magnate, entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor, and executive. Prior to being acquired by Viacom in 2001, he co-founded BET. RLJ, a holding company that invests in business sectors, is another company Johnson founded. Through the success of his companies and former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, Johnson became the first black American billionaire.

Johnson was born April 8, 1945 in Hickory, Mississippi. He attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign for his undergraduate degree and received his Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton University.

Johnson found a job in Washington, D.C. after graduating from Princeton that introduced him to the television industry. He worked at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, serving as the public affairs director. He eventually became the Vice President of Governmental Relations at the National Cable and Television Association, due to his experience working as a press secretary for Congressman Walter E. Fauntroy.

In 1979, Johnson left his position to create the first cable television networked tailored to African Americans, Black Entertainment Television. By 1985, BET has turned a profit and became the first black-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Johnson earned the title as the first African American billionaire after he sold BET in 2000 to Viacom for $3 billion. Although he sold the company, he remained CEO until 2006.

After he left BET, Johnson founded The RLJ Companies, a holding company with a portfolio consisting of hotel real estate investments, private equities, financial services, asset management, automobile dealerships, sports, and entertainment.

Johnson serves on many boards including, Board of Directors for RLJ Lodging Trust, RLJ Entertainment Inc., Lowe’s Companies, Inc., KB Home, Think Finance Inc., Strayer Education, The Business Council, NBA Board of Governors, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, US Airways, Hilton Hotels, General Mills, the United Negro College Fund, and Deutsche Bank’s Americas Advisory Board.

Chris Gardner
Chris Gardner was a business owner, American investor, stockbroker, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and author. He was the CEO of a stock brokerage firm he founded himself in 1987, Gardner Rich & Co. The company thrived in Chicago, Illinois until he sold his share to found Christopher Gardner International Holdings.

Gardner was born on February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was in Louisiana during his birth and his stepfather was physically abusive to his mother and sisters, leaving him without positive male role models. After an incident in which his stepfather reported his mother to the authorities for welfare fraud, Gardner and his sisters were placed in foster care.

While in foster care, Gardner met his Uncle Henry, who became a positive father figure in his life. Unfortunately, his uncle died when Gardner was the age of nine. The struggles he encountered in his early childhood convinced Gardner that domestic abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, illiteracy, powerlessness, and fear were things he would avoid in his future.

Before his death, Gardner’s Uncle Henry shared his stories of the worldwide adventure he experienced in the U.S Navy. This drove Gardner to enlist when he finished school. Gardner worked as a hospital corpsman during his four years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. This allowed him to connect with Dr. Robert Ellis, a decorated San Francisco cardiac surgeon, who offered Gardner a position doing clinical research at the University of California Medical Center and Veterans Administration Hospital in San Francisco. By 1976, he was given full laboratory responsibilities and co-authored many articles with Dr. Ellis.

His position at the lab paid about $8,000 a year and was not enough for Gardner to support himself and his new born child. During this time, he struggled with being homeless and trying to raise his toddler son. After quitting his job to take on a medical equipment sales position, he met a man in a red Ferrari who changed his life. The man he met shared he was a stockbroker and the successful career path led Gardner to make enough to purchase a Ferrari of his own from Michael Jordan.

Gardner established Gardner Rich & Co. in 1987, which manages over $1 billion worth of assets. After selling his stake in Gardner Rich, he became CEO and founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings, with offices in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.

Due to his trials and successes, Gardner decided to write a book of memoirs entitled The Pursuit of Happyness, published May 2006. The book led to a major motion picture of the same title starring Will Smith.

In 2012, Gardner’s wife encouraged him to fulfill himself with true happiness for the remainder of his life. Taking on the challenge has led him to travel the world 200 days year, having motivation speaking engagements in over 50 countries.

Gardner has received awards like NFI’s Father of the Year Award, the 25th Humanitarian Award from the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, and the 2006 Friends of Africa Award from the Continental Africa Chamber of Commerce.

Martin Ijaha
Martin Ijaha is the co-founder and CEO of the UK startup, Neyber, a company that partners with employers to offer loans to employees at affordable rates. His business model allows repayments of loans to be taken directly out of employee paychecks. Martin drew inspiration from the traditional “sou-sou” savings club common across Africa and matched it up with modern technology to create this financial technology startup. The startup recently attracted a £100million investment from Goldman Sachs.

Ijaha is a former investment banker and left Goldman Sachs in 2012 when he came up for the idea for his business. In Africa, there was a savings club called Sou-Sou. His mother would put £50 in a pot every time she was paid and would take the money home at the end of the month. The pot was communal and acted as a form of community savings, allowing community members to draw from the pot when needed. Ijaha turned this model into the structure for his business, in which companies would allow employees to borrow money and pay it back with their future salary. Applying this collective saving and borrowing model in the workplace connected the biggest community and cut the banks out of the process.

Don Peebles
Roy Donahue “Don” Peebles is a real estate entrepreneur, political activist, and author. He is the founder, CEO, and chairman of the Peebles Corporation, a development company of luxury hotels and commercial and high-rise residential properties in Washington, D.C., New York City, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Miami Beach, and San Francisco. According to corporate disclosure documents, he owns 100% of The Peebles Corporation. Peebles runs the largest minority-owned real estate firm in the U.S.

Peebles was born March 2, 1960 in Washington, D.C. His grandfather worked at Marriott Wardman Park hotel as a doorman, while his father was a car mechanic.  While in high school, Peebles served as a Congressional Page. Peebles dropped out of Rutgers University in 1979 in pursuance of a career in real estate.

By 1983, at the age of 23, Peebles established a residential and commercial real estate appraisal firm, RDP Corporation. The name eventually changed to Peebles Corporation, the company Peebles runs today.

Peebles is a top-selling author, writing titles such as The Peebles Principles and The Peebles Path to Real Estate Wealth. He appears on CNN, CNBC, and Fox as a regular guest and is sought after for educational, business, and professional addresses across the nation.

Beyond his own professional success, Peebles has worked encourage mentorship as a way to expose youth to entrepreneurship. He is also an active political supporter and fundraiser for local, state, and federal campaigns, working for both major parties. His work in the community includes serving on various boards, such as Chairman of the Board of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Board of Directors of YMCA of Greater New York, Miami-Dade County Mayor Gimenez’s Business Roundtable, President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee, and former Chairman of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Peebles has won awards and titles like Business Trailblazers and Titans of Black America from Black Enterprise, 40 Most Powerful African Americans in Business, and Top 10 Wealthiest Black Americans by Forbes.

Kymberlee Jay
Kymberlee Jay is a business owner, athlete on the Nike payroll, a TV presenter, choreographer, and dancer. She began her career as a dancer for Madonna before working as a choreographer. She is now the Founder and Creative Director of DoodleDirect, a company that works with companies to make animated videos to boost internal and external communications. Jay was a British plus size hip hop dancer when Madonna hand-picked her to appear in a promotional video. Her unconventional dancer’s physique inspired women and created controversy within the industry. Throughout her life she has moved from the role of dancer to choreographer, working with high-profile brands and entertainment giants internationally across TV and live events.

In 2015, Jay founded DoodleDirect, a visual communications firm with locations in New York and central London. In addition to her company, she has taken on consulting roles at firms like Nike, Holiday Inn, the global entertainment group AEG Presents, and more.

Jay’s success with DoodleDirect and collaboration with major clients like Knight Frank, the Food Standards Agency, and Vauxhall, have led her to win the Arts and Media Rising Star award at the 2017 Black British Business Awards.

Link Howard III

Link Howard III is an entrepreneur, pastor, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Powerlink Facilities Management Services. Powerlink is an ISO 9001 certified, cross-industry staffing, construction, and facilities business that caters to all the support services’ needs of eastern U.S. and Canada. Since its founding in 2003, the company remained committed to its mission of providing their clients with people that have particular links and familiarity of the culture and morals of each patron’s business. Their openness and commitment to diversity allowed them to grow and accommodate industries from healthcare, education, commercial facilities, and manufacturing, to name a few.

Prior founding Powerlink Facilities Management Services, Howard was your ordinary high school graduate who pursued a career in the military by enlisting in the Air Force soon after graduation. He served in the Vietnam War and remained in the federal service as an Equal Employment Opportunity Manager for all Air National Guard civilian employees in the country until 1997. When he left, he was eventually employed in an automotive company and rose from Operations Manager to Vice President for Sales and Marketing. Afterwards, he took all he learned about servicing and leadership to jumpstart his own company, Powerlink Facilities Management Services. Since then, it has grown into the 500+ employee community that it is today; with more than 250 customer sites in Ontario, and throughout the country. In 2012, PFMS is number 20 on Crain’s List of Largest African American Businesses with a reported annual revenue of $23.5 million.

Alongside his direction of Powerlink, Howard also provides scholarships and educational opportunities for youth in Detroit and Flint; while keeping to his obligation as a pastor and leading social trips and missions in Africa.

Wayne-Kent A. Bradshaw

Wayne-Kent A. Bradshaw is the current President and CEO of the Broadway Federal Bank and company. The said business is Los Angeles’ last black-owned bank that was founded in 1946 to give financial assistance to the consumer minority who were being ignored by the established banks of the time.

Bradshaw joined the company in 2009 as the President and Chief Operating Officer and was quickly promoted as Director of both the company and the bank around 2012 due to his extensive experience in community and commercial banking.

Prior Broadway, he was part of the several banks and other financial management organizations in the country; enriching his about 40-years experience in the industry. Some of the institutions he served are the State Banking Department as Chief Deputy Superintendent from 1981 to 1983; Los Angeles based, Family Savings bank as President and CEO from 1989 through 2000; and Washington Mutual Bank as Regional President and National Manager for Community and External Affairs from 2003 to 2009.

At present, Bradshaw continues to lead Broadway Federal Bank flawlessly with his proven abilities in planning and implementation that boost the competitiveness and growth of the company amidst trying times such as the 2011 scam scandal one of their loan officers has dragged Broadway Federal Bank into. He is also part of various community and educational boards such as California State University Northridge, California Community Reinvestment Corporation, and Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

The Broadway Federal Bank reported a total revenue of $4 million during the third quarter of 2015; a $765,000 increase compared with the $584,000 logged in 2014.

Vinnie Johnson

Vinnie Johnson, former Detroit Piston guard turned philanthropist and businessman, is the founder and Chairman of Piston Automotive. Subsequent his success with the Detroit Pistons, he decided to take on the new challenge of building his own company that endeavors to boost Detroit’s economic situation by providing jobs and opportunities to its people.

Since its establishment in 1995, Piston Automotive has expanded greatly under Johnson’s leadership from its initial single facility in Detroit to multiple sites throughout the country including Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri. It now has a projected revenue of $2.8 billion making it the largest minority-owned business in southeast Michigan.

In conjunction with Johnson’s successful career in business, he was made a member of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Minority Business Development Council, as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the JL Automotive LLC, PASA Modules, LLC joint ventures.  Johnson is also involved in numerous charity and philanthropy works.

Walter Edmond Douglas

Walter Edmond Douglas is a businessman, activist and local Detroit pioneer who, from being a simple dealer—part of Ford Motor minority training program—turned Chairperson of one of Ford’s top dealerships, Avis Ford.

Now, Avis Ford is nationally ranked in Metro Detroit serving the entire region that includes Beverly Hills, Birmingham, Bingham Farms, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, Ferndale, Franklin, Oak Park, Royal Oak, Southfield, and West Bloomfield; and Douglas is a Dealer of the Year title holder—an award given away by Black Enterprise magazine to recognize successful and noteworthy black innovators. In 2012, the company was ranked number 10 in the Crain’s List of Largest African-American Businesses with its $107.6 million revenue that year.

Douglas was originally from North Carolina and moved to Detroit in 1966 due to a job transfer in the Internal Revenue Service. His move was about the same time that Detroit was in grave turmoil over huge frustrations and pinned up emotions on how black Detroiters are being treated in society. He felt deeply for the situation and his people that he became an active citizen volunteering around the city. His dedication and efforts were noticed by city leaders that in 1972, he was made vice-president of the non-profit organization New Detroit Inc. which deals with the city’s racial injustices. He then became president of the organization in 1978 after playing numerous key roles in the promotion of equality of the blacks and whites.

Around 1985, Douglas extended to the private sector, joining Ford Motor’s initiative to give African-Americans a chance to own dealerships. Douglas purchased a share in Avis Ford, successfully grew the business, and the rest was history.  He also founded the Avis Rent-a-Car system and continues to serve the local Detroit community. He recently released a book called The Activist Entrepreneur to share his 25-year story of growth, leadership, and battling the great rebellions and recessions of his time.

Carla Walker-Miller

Carla Walker-Miller is a visionary entrepreneur, philanthropist, founder, President, and CEO of the Walker-Miller Energy Services, LLC (WMES).

Walker-Miller Energy Services is originally a Detroit-based firm established in 2000 which is focused on providing cost effective energy efficient strategies, and waste reduction services to its clients. While Carla is your solid kind of businesswoman, she is also a proud and active champion of issues related to energy conservation, water affordability, and global recruitment, employment, and training of black Detroiters. She has the knack for hiring people who have been unemployed for a long time so as to give them urban locals the chance and hope to do well in life, and stimulate funds circulation within the communities they serve and work in. Also, part of her strong commitment to her community, she set off a non-profit organization called The Water Access Volunteer Effort (WAVE) Fund which provides water bill assistance to low-income families and citizens of Detroit. She is also a board member of various organizations such as TechTown Detroit, Detroit Regional Chamber, University of Detroit Jesuit High School, and the Wayne State University Physicians Board.

With over 30 years of experience in the industry, she and her company had been recipients of many accolades and recognitions such as the 2017 Champion of the New Economy award by the DBusiness magazine; finalist for the Entrepreneur of the Year award for Michigan and Ohio by Ernst & Young; 2014 Community Partner of the Year by the Habitat for Humanity; one of the 50 Fastest Growing Women-owned business in America for 2016 by the Women Presidents Organization; trailblazer honor by The Heat and Warmth Fund, and Employer of the Year by the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, to name a few.

Far from the crumble of her first business due to the 2009 recession, Carla’s Walker-Miller Energy Services is now in contract with most of Michigan’s utilities ensuring business continuity and further success as made evident by its 2017 revenue of $25 million.

Richelieu Dennis

Richelieu Dennis is a Liberian–Sierra Leone entrepreneur who co-founded the Sundial Brands with his university roommate and best friend, Nyema Tubman, and mother, Mary Dennis in 1992.

Sundial Brands is a beauty products company that from humble beginnings is now the producer of several other brands such as SheaMoisture, popular for their handcrafted soap and salves which recipe originated from Dennis’ grandmother, Sofi; Nubian Heritage the brand that celebrates the legacy of ancient Nubia with the remix of global healing and traditions into modern skin and body care solutions; and nyakio™ skincare which products are Kenyan-inspired from the history and family of founder Nyakio Kamoche Grieco, to name a few.

Originally, co-founder and Chief Executive Office, Dennis was supposed to return to Liberia after graduating from the Babylon College in the United States but was unable to because of the intensifying civil unrest in the country. The change in the original plan became quite a blessing in disguise as it prompted the creation of Sundial Brands. Their then need to support themselves in a foreign country had Dennis, drawing from his rich family roots and tradition some wisdom, recipes, and experiences on natural body care products that they recreated in their small apartment in Queens, and sold in the streets of New York.

Dennis credits his entrepreneurial knowhow and skills from his grandmothers (who were both vendors in their small village in rural West Africa) and his mother, Mary—whose principles of compassion, hard work, and respect had been his guiding values in leading the company despite prejudice towards minority businesses and challenges regarding racial segregation. In the 26 years of Sundial Brands, it took Dennis 16 years just to put it in the main shelves.

The brand has come a long way. From its initial cramped headquarters in Queens, they now operate in a state of the art facility in Amityville, New York, and with a recorded revenue of $200 million in 2015; demonstrating a 31% increase in revenue every year. Slowly but surely, Sundial Brands has been making its mark in the beauty department while promoting equality, value, and esteem towards beauty of all color and race.

Charles Adams

Charles Adams is the founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Adams Communication & Engineering Technology. A company he established in 1999 to serve federal agencies, particularly the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, Veteran Administration, and other private sectors with all their mission- critical IT needs.

Adams started his career in the Intelligence Community in Germany as a Senior Signals Intelligence Analyst at Field Station Berlin. It was followed by his time at TRW in Washington, DC as a Software Engineer assigned to the Naval Space Command Center when he moved to the United States. After which he held more positions in several other Aerospace, Software Development, and Systems Engineering centers from 1990 to 1999.

Come April 1999, with about 20 years of experience in the industry, Adams opened his own company, ACET with just a single employee. Since then, he has led the company to considerable growth with now about 500 employees and alliance with the federal government, and high-profile businesses, communities, and organizations throughout country. In 2016, ACET has a reported revenue of $322 million putting it on the 59th spot in the Washington Technology’s Top 100 List.

Gene Waddy

Gene Waddy is the “Jersey-native” mentor, owner, founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Diversant, the biggest African-American owned IT staffing and solutions firm in the United States. It offers a wide variety of services such as staff augmentation, payroll, diversity programs, and direct hire.

Diversant has been in rapid growth since its establishment in 2005 and is one of the few companies that did not waver during the 2009 recession; giving it an excellent reputation with some of the Fortune 500 companies. It has expanded to 12 different locations all over the US and employs about 1,300 IT consultants; working directly to businesses of several industries like telecommunications, insurance, energy, and banking.

Aside from being an entrepreneur, Waddy is also an active member of his community hosting mentoring programs for the youth, as well as board and member of many organizations concerned with career development, advancement, and youth education like the Program for Acceleration in Careers of Engineering, Marion P. Thomas Charter School in Newark, and New Jersey Tech Council, among many others.

Waddy’s entrepreneurial expertise helped Diversant acquire its 2017 charted revenue of $164 million, while his solid leadership, fortitude, and commitment in helping others gave him numerous titles and recognitions including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2013, and 2011 NJBiz Executive of the Year finalist.

Sheila Johnson

Sheila Johnson is a philanthropist and entrepreneur of wide spectrum who is the founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts.  She is a patron of sports, film, education, community development, women empowerment, and a woman if many firsts.

Prior her venture in the hospitality industry, she’s already the first African American to have a stake in not just one but three professional sports team: the Washington Wizards (NBA), Washington Mystics (WNBA), and Washington Capitals (NHL); and after, she became the first African American woman to reach a net worth of a billion dollars.

Johnson founded Salamander Hotels & Resorts in 2005 after overseeing the growing luxury businesses in Virginia. She began with a 340-acre property and turned it into a spa that is reflective of the Middleburg area. The aim was to encourage city folks to come to the countryside to de-stress and appreciate the local and natural beauty of Virginia. The business has expanded since and is now a conglomerate of many luxury businesses that includes Innisbrook Resort, Reunion Resort, Hammock Beach Resort, Henderson Beach Resort, NOPSI Hotel, Hotel Bennett, and the latest addition to its collection, Tyron Resort,

Aside from leading Salamander Hotels & Resorts, Johnson is also busy with Black Entertainment Television as its founding partner, as well as creator and producer of award winning programs, documentaries, and feature films. She is also part of the Sundance Institute Board, ANNIKA Foundation, and Middleburg Film Festival’s Founder and Chair. She is also a partner in Mistral, makers of fine home, bath, and body products, owner of her a luxury scarves line, and a fervent supporter of education and the arts. Member of the Leadership Council at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, Board of Governors of Parsons the New School for Design in New York, Americans for the Arts, VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, Curry School of education Foundation at the University of Virginia, and University of Illinois Foundation, as well as sponsor of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center which is a combination facility of classrooms, galleries, and public program spaces. She is also the Ambassador for the Healthy Site Institute, CARE, and member of the Foreign Relations Council.

With 30-year experience and all her accomplishments and efforts, she has been given many accolades in the different fields that she serves, like Top 50 America’s Richest Self-Made Women (Forbes Magazine), and Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, to name a few. In 2017, her net worth was placed at $750 million.

Oscar Horton

Oscar Horton is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sun State International Trucks, LLC., a full service truck dealership that sells, leases, and services new and used trucks, buses, and tractors in over 1000 locations in North America. His dreams of directly influencing and impacting people’s lives positively is what led him to leaving his comfortable executive position and start his own business.

From the rubbles of the Tampa and Sarasota dealerships, Horton opened and transformed Sun State International Trucks LLC to the flourishing company that it is today. During the time of purchase, the company faced numerous challenges such as poor employee morale, lack of technological infrastructure, and other recurring losses, due to workings of the previous management. With his dream on the line and the situation at hand, Horton took an aggressive technique in order to turn things around and generate growth for the company and its people. Today, the Sun State International Trucks LLC has about $158 million revenue, as logged in the 2016 African-American Business books.

Despite his and the company’s current success, Horton does not intend to sit on his laurel nor stop at serving his community. He intends to make more opportunities of growth for his staff, improve Sun State International’s technological infrastructures, and deepening customer relationships; while serving on the academic boards such as the University of South Florida, Academy Prep Center, Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, Boys and Girls Club, and Bank of Tampa, among many others.

Leon C. Richardson

Leon C. Richardson is the founder, President, and CEO of the largest minority-owned chemical management company in the United States, known as the Chemico Group. Richardson began his career in the US Marine Corps where he stayed for eight years. He branched out to business whilst still in the corps by enrolling at the University of Maryland’s off campus program for a Business Management Degree. He eventually left the corps and continued his pursuit of business at Detroit College, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and Ross School of Business at University of Michigan.

Prior Chemico Group, Richardson worked in the automotive industry where he was able to acquire skills and knowledge in organic chemistry, chemical manufacturing, as well as sales and marketing.

Founded in 1989, the business specializes in supplying its clients with an integrated solution for the whole chemical lifecycle. With a client portfolio comprising of the biggest companies such as Chrysler, Boeing, Honeywell, Delphi, and General Motors, Chemico Group grew rapidly over the years.  It has expanded from a single employee start-up business to a globally recognized chemical and environmental services giant that is today employing about 300 people and operating in 22 states in the United States and two other countries outside, Mexico and Canada.

Richardson’s steadfast and concrete leadership skills in the past 27 years has brought his company a revenue of over $100 million and numerous awards and recognitions like the 2017 Class IV Supplier of the Year Award by The Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, Corp! Magazine’s Diversity and Multiculturalism Award of 2016, Supplier of the Year Award for seven consecutive years by General Motors, 2017 Supplier Quality Excellence Award by Toyota North America, and others similar awards from the automotive line of industries.

Jordan Notenbaum

Jordan Notenbaum is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Defenders, the leading distributor of cellphone and other wireless devices parts, accessories, and repair tools and services to small businesses and individual clients across the United States.

Notenbaum received his bachelor’s degree in marketing and Finance in 2010 at Grand Valley State University while already being part of the business industry as an eCommerce Fulfillment Supervisor, and later Junior Controller at the biggest arts and crafts products distributor in the world, Notions Marketing Corporation.

After graduation, he opened up a business with his childhood friends Steve Barnes and Gary Von Myhr in the form of Genius Phone Repair which in just a span of 2 years became Indiana and Michigan’s retail repair go-to place. The three friends then realized the importance of creating a better and well-rounded supply chain solution and expanded the business in 2013; under a new name, Mobile Defenders.

Since, the company has generated a total of $35.8 million revenue and continues to be known as the country’s leading solutions provider in mobile and gadgets repair.

Timothy J. Adams

Timothy J. Adams is the force behind Systems Application & Technologies, Inc. also known as SA-TECH. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Adams progressively grows SA-TECH into the professional engineering, IT, and logistic services company of today that caters to organizations such as the United States Department of Defense, Army, and Navy.

Adams’ background and expertise lie in business administration, innovation, and management

with a hint of experience in aerospace. He founded SA-Tech in 1989 with but a solid business plan, himself, and a bank loan. Now, his company is a multimillion dollar business recognized throughout the country, employing over 400 people and has offices in Maryland, California, New Mexico, Washington, and Alabama.SA-TECH grew from a stable small-business industry player offering testing support services and anti-terrorism protection training to one of the respected big companies in the defense industry with a steady 12% increase in revenues annually.

Over the years, SA-Tech has won various accolades for its remarkable service to the nation and steady business growth. Some of its most distinguished awards and rankings are Top 100 Privately Held Companies in the United States, ranked by the Washington Business Journal, Maryland’s Top 50 Diversity Owned Business, Black Enterprise’s Top 100 Industrial/Services Black Businesses in the Nation, one of The Gazette’s Politics and Business Exceptional 53 Companies in the State of Maryland, and Black Chamber of Commerce Exemplary Business Recognition Award, to name a few.

Together with the success of the business is the recognition of the skills and expertise of its founder, Adams. His industry knowhow and charisma has won him titles and appreciations like Bowie State University’s 2010 Founders Promise Award, Maryland’s 25 CEOs You Need to Know, Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise Hall of Fame for the Mid-Atlantic Region, Maryland ‘s 2013 Chamber of Commerce’s Hall of Fame inductees, Most Admired CEOs by the Daily Record, Prince George’s County Young Democrats 2016 Business Leader of the Year Award, among many others.

A man of the community, Timothy J. Adams has a wide-range of advocacies where he played significant roles in presenting the issues of small business to the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and providing help to persons with disabilities as part of the Committee for Review for the Americans with Disabilities Act. As of present, his volunteerism to the Patriots Technology Training Center (PTTC) in Maryland helped heal the gap brought about by the digital, enable students of the minority to experience innovations, and encourage the youth to pursue STEM courses and careers.