UBR Spotlight: A10 Solutions CEO Leah Brown Achieves Clinical Success

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita D. Young talks with Leah Brown, the CEO of A10 Clinical Solutions Inc. Based in Cary, North Carolina, the manager of clinical trials and corporate healthcare clinics earned revenues of $19.7 million in 2010 to land at No. 100 on the Black Enterprise 100s list of the nation’s largest Black-owned industrial/service companies.

A10 Clinical Solutions, named Black Enterprise‘s Emerging Company of the Year in 2008, has two lines of business. The first, its clinical trials management business, accounts for about 85% of A10’s revenues. Clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, and Amgen. A10 provides the technical resources, often clinical research associates and registered nurses, who work as members of the investigative team to assess and monitor the safety and efficacy as the drug is used by larger control groups. Its second line of business manages healthcare clinics at large corporations. Brown sits down with Young to share how she channeled her passion for better healthcare into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.

Also, UBR Contributor Jason Smith speaks with Michael Hudson, CEO of Money Talks International, an Atlanta-based company focused on motivating individuals in the areas of leadership and self-empowerment, helping them to gain a clear and solid vision. Hudson, who has spent 20 years in corporate American and 15 years as an entrepreneur, stops by the roundtable to share strategies for entrepreneurs who are looking to find ways to finance their business in a difficult economy.

In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I talk about why African American entrepreneurs who have been reluctant to play the game of golf need to change their tune. Golf is the game of business for the same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks: Because that’s where the money is. Historically, Blacks were kept out of the game by overt racism and discrimination. However, today, those barriers have largely fallen. The only thing keeping most of us from playing the game, to paraphrase golf legend Ben Hogan, is that five inches between our ears. It’s past time for us to free our minds and get into the game, so we can access the business relationships and networks that entrepreneurs who came before us were expressly excluded from. On top of that, you’ll have a lot of fun; just ask anyone who’s attended the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.