50 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK ENTREPRENEURS OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS -

50 MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACK ENTREPRENEURS OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS

One of the most rewarding aspects of BLACK ENTERPRISE’s mission has been to instruct and inspire African American entrepreneurs on how to best position their ventures and place them on the path to be included among the BE 100s: the nation’s largest Black-owned businesses. Publisher Earl G. Graves Sr. would be the first to beam with pride when an entrepreneur who declared years earlier that they would one day make the list wound up appearing on the coveted roster. That entrepreneur, however, would make that journey and achieve that milestone usually based on the example of one of the numerous business icons we have covered on the pages of our magazine and other media platforms over the past five decades.

Here we have identified a roster of those transformative, groundbreaking entrepreneurs who have encouraged and guided generations of African American business owners to achieve their commercial best. As they built business empires, developed innovative products and services, designed novel business models, and broke countless barriers, they have done no less than change our nation and the world.

ARTHUR G. GASTON SR.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON LIFE INSURANCE EST. 1923
This son of a domestic worker from rural Alabama used ingenuity and grit to rise to the pinnacle of a multimillion-dollar financial empire in segregated Birmingham. He launched Booker T. Washington Insurance Company in 1923, at a time when white insurers refused to serve Black consumers, and used it as the foundation to establish a series of businesses, including Citizens Federal Savings Bank (like BTW, it would have a place among BE financial institutions); a construction firm; a business college; a pharmacy; a funeral home; cemeteries; and radio stations. In 1987, he created an employee stock ownership program and sold BTW shares to his staff. Appropriately, the prowess and impact of Gaston, who died at the ripe age of 104, earned him the designation as

JOHN H. JOHNSON

JOHNSON PUBLISHING INC. EST. 1942
The late business legend built his Chicago-based publishing, media, and cosmetics conglomerate into the first Black-owned global powerhouse, distributing worldwide name brands such as Ebony, Jet, and Fashion Fair. For more than 60 years, Johnson’s products touched the lives of millions of African Americans. His profitable line of publications communicated to white advertisers the viability of the Black consumer market and, at the same time, shattered social and commercial barriers through the exposure of African American trials and triumphs. Moreover, Ebony Fashion Fair, the national fashion event that ran from
1958 to 2009, financed the education of generations of HBCU students through donations to UNCF.

HENRY PARKS

PARKS SAUSAGE CO. EST. 1951
Considered one of America’s most brilliant businessmen, Parks transformed an abandoned Baltimore-based dairy plant he acquired in 1951 into one of the nation’s most profitable food manufacturers. He created and marketed the line of coveted mainstream breakfast products using the memorable tagline: “More Parks sausages, please…”. He also made history when he took Parks public in 1970, making it the first Black-owned company to trade on NASDAQ. The company did not suffer any losses from its inception until 1977 when its stock stopped trading on the exchange after it was sold to a white company for $5 million, more than double its value on NASDAQ (Parks would eventually regain Black ownership and appear on the BE 100s again). A member of the original BLACK ENTERPRISE Advisory Board, Parks served as a valued mentor to scores of Black entrepreneurs before his death in 1987.

HERMAN RUSSELL

H. J. RUSSELL & CO. EST. 1952
A perennial member of an exclusive group of iconic BE 100s CEOs, the late Russell forged a legacy as an accomplished businessman and mentor who inspired several generations of leaders in commerce, politics, education, and corporate America. He rose above both societal barriers and personal disadvantages– including a lifelong speech impediment–as he pursued entrepreneurial success. Publisher Graves wrote that “If the late, legendary Mayor Maynard H. Jackson was the prime architect of ‘New South’ Atlanta, Russell was its master builder.” In developing the nation’s
largest Black-owned construction firm, he changed the skylines of American cities
and international hubs and opened doors for African Americans in general contracting,
real estate management, and airport concessions.

ERNESTA PROCOPE

E. G. BOWMAN CO. INC. EST. 1952
As founder and CEO of E.G. Bowman Co. Inc., Procope applied vision and drive to grow a small Brooklyn-based storefront operation into the first and largest Black-owned insurance brokerage firm located in New York’s financial district. She emerged successful, despite dealing with major competitive threats within the white, male-dominated industry— gaining contracts from leviathans such as PepsiCo, Phillip Morris, TimeWarner, Tiffany, General Motors, and Avon, one of the companies that would eventually tap her for corporate board service. Moreover, Procope used her influence to fight redlining by helping enact insurance reforms that allowed low-income Black families to gain coverage in New York and 30 other states.

GEORGE & JOAN JOHNSON

JOHNSON PRODUCTS INC. EST. 1954
When the Johnsons founded the Chicago-based ethnic haircare products company in 1954, the couple created enduring brands such as Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen as well as developed a pillar among the BE100s for roughly 20 years. Throughout their entrepreneurial journey, the Johnsons made a his-toric impact. For example, in 1971, Johnson Products became the first Black-owned company traded on the American Stock Exchange. Moreover, their commitment to African American businesses included sponsorship of Soul Train, making it the first nationally syndicated Black TV program backed by a Black-owned company. After the couple divorced in the early 1990s, Joan John-son gained control of the company and eventually sold it to white-owned IVAX. The Johnsons, however, would eventually reconcile and continue their engagement in philanthropic pursuits.

BERRY GORDY

MOTOWN INDUSTRIES EST. 1959
Music industry icon Gordy created America’s soundtrack with such hitmakers as Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and The Jackson 5. Marrying the assembly-line process he learned from Detroit auto manufacturers with his strategic marketing approach, Gordy’s Hitsville USA has been largely credited with designing the business model for scores of entrepreneurs within the entertainment industry. When BE unveiled its Top 100 rankings in 1973, Motown emerged as the list leader with $40 million in reve-nues. The company, which diversified into motion picture and television production when it moved from Detroit to Los Angeles, held the No.1 position on the BE 100s for more than a decade and remained among the list leaders until Gordy sold Motown in 1988.

EDWARD GARDNER

SOFT SHEEN PRODUCTS INC. EST. 1964
As founder of Chicago-based Soft Sheen in 1964, Gardner and his wife, Bettiann, operated their fledg-ling enterprise in the basement of their home. Over two decades, they built it into a mammoth Black-owned haircare manufacturer with global reach. With the introduction of the Care Free Curl line to both professional beauticians and retailers, Soft Sheen realized phenomenal growth as it capitalized on the popular Jheri Curl trend of the 1980s. Sales grew from $500,000 in 1979 to $55 million in 1983, catapulting Soft Sheen to No. 8 on the BE 100 list. By 1989, when it was named BE Company of the Year, Soft Sheen had acquired a London-based distributor and set up a worldwide network for customers in 66 countries to purchase its line of more than 150 products.

J. BRUCE LLEWELLYN

FEDCO FOOD CORP.; PHILADELPHIA COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. INC. EST. 1969 & 1985
A consummate dealmaker, the late Llewellyn created monolithic companies through innovative financing, groundbreaking partnerships, and val-ue-inducing turnarounds. In 1969, when the towering entrepreneur acquired Fedco Food Corp., a profitable South Bronx grocery store chain, through a leveraged buyout, he was among the first to engage in that revolutionary type of transaction. In 1985, he partnered with Julius Erving and Bill Cosby to purchase Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co., the first Black-owned soft drink bottling franchise. Due to his leadership, it became the sixth-largest Coca-Cola bottler and third-largest Black-owned business. He also made his mark with another group of Black investors, launch-ing Queen City Broadcasting, which acquired a Buffalo, New York-based ABC affiliate and became one of the largest Black-owned televi-sion networks of its time.

BYRON LEWIS

UNIWORLD GROUP INC. EST. 1969
More than five decades ago, Lewis founded Uni-World Group as a vehicle to “present positive portrayals of people of color across communications platforms, including print, film, radio, TV, and beyond.” He reached his corporate mission of creating one of the nation’s largest multicultural agencies, developing targeted campaigns for Ford Motor Company, AT&T, Colgate-Palmolive, and Pepsi-Cola, among others. In fact, the agency was among the first to focus on micro-segments like the Afro-Latino and Carib-bean communities. UWG had also succeeded in snaring elusive general-market accounts from Burger King and M&M/Mars. To stay competitive, Lewis structured a strategic alliance with global advertising giant WPP Group plc, which gained a 49% stake in UWG, while continuing to maintain a bevy of franchises, including the nationally syndicated television program America’s Black Forum and American Black Film Festival, an event still going strong after more than 20 years.

CLARENCE AVANT

SUSSEX RECORDS; AVANT GARDE EST. 1969 & 1971
Known as “The Black Godfather,” Avant has redefined Black entertainment and built a business network that has connected music, film, corporate America, finance, and politics. Over the years, he has developed a reputation as the trusted, go-to adviser for high-powered celebrities, entrepreneurs, and power players. As a music executive, film producer, and groundbreaking entrepreneur for more than a half-century, he founded Sussex Records, an early BE 100s company that released hits from Bill Withers, as well as launched Tabu Records, signing such top acts Kool & the Gang, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and the S.O.S. Band. Always one to take risks, he helped promote Michael Jackson’s Bad tour, the high-est-grossing and largest-attended tour in history. As CEO of Avant Garde and his music publishing enterprise, Interior Music Publishing, he continues to mine talent to this day.

ED LEWIS & CLARENCE SMITH

ESSENCE COMMUNICATION INC. EST. 1970
Launched 50 years ago, Essence started as a publication that celebrated the beauty and potential of African American women. Among the original owners, Lewis and Smith cap-italized on that focus during their 35-year partnership as the company’s majority owners. The two made the game-changing move of elevating Susan Taylor to Editor-In-Chief in 1981, making her the publication’s face and voice for more than 20 years. The next step was ramping up product diversification to generate additional exposure and revenues. In 1995, Lewis and Smith launched the Essence Music Festival to celebrate its 25th anniversary. They grew it into the nation’s largest Black culture and music attraction, drawing roughly 500,000 attendees to New Orleans annually. ECI remained a perennial on the BE 100s until Time Inc. acquired the entire company in 2005.

EARL G. GRAVES SR.

BLACK ENTERPRISE EST. 1970
As founder and publisher of BLACK ENTERPRISE, this quintessential entrepreneur created a vehicle to provide information and advocacy to enable three generations of African Americans to build wealth through business ownership, career advancement, and money management. Driven by that mission, Graves became a trailblazing entrepreneur in his own right, building Black Enterprise from a single-magazine publishing company to a diversi-fied multimedia business spreading the message of financial empowerment to more than 6 million African Americans through print, digital, broadcast, and live-event platforms. Throughout the 1990s, he also partnered with PepsiCo and basketball superstar-cum-entre-preneur Earvin “Magic” Johnson to own and operate another BE 100s company, Pepsi-Cola of Washington, D.C. L.P., which become the largest Black-owned Pepsi bottling franchise.

TRAVERS J. BELL JR.

DANIELS & BELL EST. 1971
Bell co-founded investment bank Daniels & Bell, which in 1971 became the first Black-owned investment bank on the New York Stock Exchange and a major force in municipal bond underwriting throughout the nation. In addition to his success in high finance, Bell structured one of the first leveraged buyouts completed by an African American business-man when his DanBell subsidiary acquired Cocoline Chocolate, which was ranked among the largest Black-owned companies in the 1980s. Moreover, the pioneer, who died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 46, had been committed to organizing African American financial entrepreneurs and professionals to fight for parity within the securities industry and to encourage young entrants into the field.

THOMAS BURRELL

BURRELL ADVERTISING EST. 1971
Recognized as the “Dean of Black Advertising,” Burrell launched his Chicago-based ad agency in 1971 and spent the next 30 years breaking barriers within the media industry. For decades, he fought for industrywide diversification and the opportunity for Black agencies to gain general market accounts. Among Burrell’s key clients were Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s–the latter two remain with the agency to this day. To fund its expansion, Burrell sold a 49% stake of the agency to French media giant Publicis Groupe. Five years later, he decided to retire and sold his majority stake to his top managers, retaining the firm’s African American ownership and gaining Chairman Emeritus status.

PERCY SUTTON

INNER CITY BROADCASTING CORP. EST. 1971
The late politician, Tuskegee Airman, and civil rights activist purchased a single radio station in New York City in 1971 for $1.9 million and grew it into media conglomerate Inner City Broadcasting Corp.—one of the first such broadcasting entities owned by African Americans. Its model of R&B, talk radio, and community service would be replicated nationwide. A fixture on the legendary 125th Street as a young man, Sutton gave back to the community when he purchased a financially devastated Apollo Theater for $250,000 in 1981. After saving the famed venue, his company produced the hit TV show Showtime at the Apollo and other programming. Sutton also headed a group that owned The New York Amsterdam News, the second largest Black weekly newspaper in the country.

AL JOHNSON

AL JOHNSON CADILLAC INC. EST. 1971
As the first African American to be awarded Oldsmobile and Cadillac franchises from General Motors, the late Johnson was considered one of the country’s top dealers and a galvanizing force for African American auto dealers. He had been initially forced to sell cars from his briefcase since African Americans could not be hired to engage in such activity inside a dealership. After petitioning GM to become a dealer for 15 years, he was finally awarded a franchise. After becoming a dealer, he fought to ensure other African Americans did not have to endure the same process. As such, he organized the first Minority Auto Dealers Association in the 1970s and encouraged GM to start a training program for minority dealers, which eventually became the industry standard.

FRANK MINGO & CAROLINE JONES

MINGO-JONES ADVERTISING EST. 1977
Mingo and Jones founded the agency in 1977, which was built upon a solid reputation for highly creative campaigns that appealed to Black consumers. The two complemented one another: Mingo focused on the area of marketing segmentation, which grew out of his involvement in national politics, media, and race relations. Jones, the first Black female vice president of a major agency, combined brilliant writing talent with a keen insight into consumer preferences. As a result, the agency led the way in the development of crossover ethnic campaigns that later became general market advertising, most notably the Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “We Do Chicken Right” campaign.

JANICE BYRANT HOWROYD

ACT-1 GROUP EST. 1978
Launched in 1978 with a $1,500 family loan and a small office in Beverly Hills, Act-1 Group has grown into the only business to generate roughly $3 billion in revenues that is owned and operated by an African American woman. A proponent of global enterprise and information technology, Bryant Howroyd has provided staffing and HR solutions to some of the world’s largest corporations in more than 19 countries while serving as a mentor to a number of Black entrepreneurs. One of the areas of growth has been its brand, AllSTEM Connections Inc., a diversity certified staffing agency that provides leading STEM talent to clients.

COMER COTTRELL

PRO-LINE CORP. EST. 1979
With a mere $600, the late Cottrell launched Pro-Line Corp., which would become one of the nation’s largest Black haircare manufacturers. He gained the idea of developing a line of African American haircare products from a co-worker while working at Sears. He quit his job and began working with chemists and researching the market. Eventually, he persuaded beauty and barbershops to use his products as well as significantly boosted sales through military bases overseas. Cottrell’s success positioned him to break new ground in business like acquiring an equity stake in the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball franchise in 1989 and using it as a vehicle to increase minority involvement in professional sports. In the area of philanthropy, he invested more than $3 million to keep the Dallas-based HBCU Paul Quinn College from shutting its doors. In 2000, he sold the company to Alberto Culver for $80 million.

ROBERT L. JOHNSON

BET; THE RLJ COMPANIES EST. 1980 & 1981
For 40 years, Johnson has repeatedly made business history. First, he launched Black Entertainment Television–better known as BET–as the first Black-owned cable television network in 1980. Within a little more than a decade, he took it public in 1991–the first time a Black-owned company was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. After taking the company private again, he sold BET to Viacom for $3.2 billion in a transaction that made him America’s first Black billionaire. He shattered other barriers as the first Black majority owner of an NBA franchise in 2003. He also took two other companies public: RLJ Lodging Trust, a $3 billion hotel real estate investment trust listed on the Big Board since 2011, and RLJ Entertainment, listed on NASDAQ in 2012 and sold six years later to AMC Networks, for which he now serves as chairman. Two of his firms–RML Automotive and RLJ Equity Partners–both part of his expansive conglomerate, The RLJ Companies, can be found among the BE 100s lists of the nation’s largest Black-owned businesses.

CATHY HUGHES

URBAN ONE INC. EST. 1980
Cathy Hughes started her multimedia empire with the purchase of one Washington, D.C., station in 1980. Through a series of acquisitions, she would expand her company, Radio One, into the owner and operator of more than 70 radio stations targeted to African American listeners. By 1999, she became the first African American woman to head a publicly traded company when it was listed on NASDAQ. By 2004, an alliance with Comcast resulted in the launch of TV One L.L.C., which would eventually become the nation’s largest Black-owned cable television network. By 2017, the consolidation of its broadcast and digital properties, among other entities, resulted in the formation of Urban One, the largest Black-owned media conglomerate.

BILL MAYS

MAYS CHEMICAL EST. 1980
The late business pioneer launched Mays Chemical Co. Inc. in 1980, which evolved into one of the nation’s largest chemical distributors serving the food, pharmaceutical, and personal care sectors, among others. Mays further expanded his business empire to include media, restaurants, and real estate. The intrepid entrepreneur was also one of the leading Black angel investors, providing capital and advice to a number of minority businesses including partnerships with such BE 100s firms as The Chemico Group.

DON BARDEN

THE BARDEN COS. EST. 1981
The late Barden focused on developing a portfolio of well-run, highly profit-able companies–and managed to achieve that goal in two industries. In 1981, he entered uncharted territory for Black entrepreneurs by developing the largest Black cable television operator through the acquisition of franchises in Inkster, Michigan, and Detroit, growing revenues from $600,000 t0 roughly $91 million within a decade. After selling his cable operation to Comcast for about $115 mil-lion, Barden decided to make his next fortune, managing the only Black-owned gaming conglomerate in the country. He made history with the acquisition of three Fitzgeralds casinos for $149 million in 2002, making him the first African American to own casino operations in Las Vegas, the industry’s largest U.S. mar-ket. As a result of these forays, he earned BE Company of the Year honors in two areas: in 1992 for Barden Communications Inc. and in 2003 for Barden Cos. Inc.

VALERIE DANIELS CARTER

V&J HOLDINGS EST. 1982
Daniels-Carter is considered the queen of franchising—a sector that has persistent underrepresentation of minorities, especially as multi-unit owners. Since starting Milwaukee-based V&J Holding Cos. Inc. in 1982 with her brother, John, she has grown the company from a single Burger King restaurant into the nation’s largest Black-owned mega-franchisee that includes 68 Pizza Huts throughout four states, along with five Haagen-Dazs, and five Coffee Beanery stores. V&J also teamed up with former NBA All-Star Shaquille O’Neal, sharing ownership of eight out of 21 Auntie Anne’s soft pretzel stores. V&J has recently become a franchisor with its ownership of MyYoMy Frozen Yogurt. Moreover, Daniels-Carter has made top plays in professional sports as a board member of the Green Bay Packers NFL franchise and minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team.

REGINALD F. LEWIS

TLC GROUP; TLC BEATRICE EST. 1983 & 1987
With his historic $985 million leveraged buyout of TLC Beatrice International Foods Cos.—the largest offshore transaction at the time—the late financier created the first Black-owned global enterprise to surpass the billion-dollar revenue mark. He helped Black businesses gain access to financing throughout his business career and became the standard-bearer for African Americans on Wall Street. His first big deal came in 1983 with a $22.5 million leveraged buyout of McCall Pattern Company, a home sewing and publishing firm. Lewis streamlined McCall’s financially troubled operations and led two of the most profitable years in its 113-year history. Lewis sold the business in 1987 for $90 million, a 90-to-1 return on his investment.

R. DONAHUE PEEBLES

THE PEEBLES CORP. EST. 1983
Peebles has been a game changer in the real estate industry for close to four decades. Building one of the largest Black-owned real estate firms, he acquired the Royal Palm Resort in Miami Beach, Florida, in 2004—the first Black-owned and -developed resort in the nation—to add to The Peebles Corp.’s multibil-lion-dollar portfolio of properties. Two years later, he sold that property for $127.5 million. The real estate mogul is one of the country’s wealthiest African Amer-icans, with an estimated net worth of more than $700 million and a roughly $5 billion real estate portfolio. As Chairman and CEO of The Peebles Corporation, he operates one of the nation’s top privately held real estate development companies spanning New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and other key markets. He’s also developed a $500 million fund to help other diverse entrepreneurs in the real estate industry.

JOHN ROGERS JR.

ARIEL INVESTMENTS EST. 1983
In 1983, Rogers founded Ariel Capital Management, now Ariel Investments L.L.C., the first African American firm to develop a mutual fund: the Ariel Fund. With offices in New York and Sydney, the Chicago-based firm offers investors six no-load mutual funds and nine separate accounts. In 2003, his company achieved an investment milestone when 17 major corporations selected Ariel’s mutual funds for its 401k plans. The firm reported assets under management of more than $15 billion–the nation’s largest African American asset manager. For close to 30 years, he has promoted financial literacy and wealth-building through investing using the Ariel Education Initiative and advocates for diversity through the Black Corporate Directors Conference. He is still actively fighting for greater opportunities for Black firms to gain access to opportunities to manage corporate, pension fund, and endowment dollars.

EDDIE BROWN

BROWN CAPITAL EST. 1983
Brown, considered one of the world’s most renowned stock pickers, founded Brown Capital Management Inc. in 1983. Over the decades, he has grown his firm into one of the nation’s largest Black asset managers and developed a series of mutual funds, giving a number of African Americans the opportunity to serve as portfolio managers. In 2016, his firm became the first minority-owned firm to earn a series of coveted recognitions from Morningstar, the independent investment research and management company. Its Small Company Fund received a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold, its highest Medalist rating, and a Morningstar Overall Rating of five stars, beating out 660 other Small Growth Funds. One of its criteria is based on the portfolio’s risk-adjusted returns in 2015. Also, its International Equity Fund Investor Class also achieved a Morningstar Overall Rating of five-stars, in a category of 694 Foreign Large Blend Funds.

DAVE BING

BING STEEL EST. 1984
Retired NBA All-Star and former mayor of Detroit, Bing is a pioneer in the steel industry. Bing launched a small steel company in Detroit to take advantage of opportunities in the automotive sector but grew his enterprise through a series of joint ventures and partnerships with major manufacturers as well as local entrepreneurs. He quickly expanded Bing Steel, growing accounts to 53 customers including General Motors, Ford and Deere & Co. As a result, he gained recognition from The White House for his business prowess and impact within the Detroit community. During the 1990s, The Bing Group—which comprised five companies: Bing Steel, Superb Manufacturing, Bing Manufacturing, Detroit Automotive Interiors, and Trim Tech—had become one of the largest Black suppliers to the Big Three auto manufacturers and one of the biggest employers on the BE 100s.

RUSSELL SIMMONS

DEF JAM; PHAT FASHIONS L.L.C. EST. 1984 & 1992
Simmons didn’t just open a business when he created Rush Communications, he gave birth to the multibillion-dollar hip-hop economy. Simmons used Rush as a platform to build a series of companies with tentacles in the entertainment, marketing, and fashion industries. Through his Def Jam unit, he produced music, comedy shows, and motion pictures, while Phat Fashions L.L.C. ignited the billion-dollar urban attire industry. In building his empire, he has built value in companies and brands as well as amassed capital to deploy in other ventures through divestitures. For example, he sold Def Jam in 1998 for $120 million, Phat Farm and Baby Phat for about $114 million in 2004 and UniRush, maker of the RushCard, to Green Dot, a provider of prepaid debit cards, for $147 million in 2017. He has served as a mentor and created the business model for a generation of entrepreneurs in the entertainment and fashion industries.

OPRAH WINFREY

HARPO INC. EST. 1986
Winfrey is among the shrewdest entrepreneurs and one of the most ubiquitous global brands, influencing the buying decisions of millions worldwide. Since 1986, she has transformed Harpo Inc. into a multime-dia conglomerate that touches television, radio, digital, and film. Her television network, OWN, has grown as a production and distribution platform for African American creators and Black-oriented programming. For instance, she has partnered with Lionsgate, The New York Times, and Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones to adapt “The 1619 Project” into a collection of films, television shows, documen-taries, unscripted programming, and other forms of content. One of the few Black billionaires in the nation, Win-frey uses her platforms and resources to push for social justice like using O magazine’s cover to honor Breonna Taylor–the first time in 20 years the media mogul did not grace the cover of her own magazine.

EARVIN “MAGIC” JOHNSON

MAGIC JOHSON ENTERPRISES EST. 1987
The former basketball superstar scored in business, developing partnerships with Sony Corp. (Magic Johnson Theaters), TGI Friday’s Inc., and Starbucks Corp. to place mainstream brands in Black commu-nities. He continued to grow through partnerships and investments in new sectors of opportunity. For example, he created JLC Infrastructure, a joint ven-ture comprising Magic Johnson Enterprises and Loop Capital Markets L.L.C., to identify the development of major construction and expansion projects in states and localities and has made investments in ventures launched by Black entrepreneurs such as Walker & Co., the tech-driven grooming company; Uncharted Power, a firm focused on renewable energy; and Jop-well, a diversity and inclusion recruitment platform. Moreover, His EquiTrust Life Insurance Co., along with MBE Partners and Carver Federal Savings Bank, has provided a total of $325 million in funding to women- and minority-owned businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

WILLIAM PICKARD

GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE ALLIANCE CORP. EST. 1989
As founder, chairman, and CEO of Global Automo-tive Alliance, Pickard created the first Black-owned group of plastic-parts suppliers to handle the needs of the top three U.S. automakers. GAA has also supplied global giants such as Mercedes Benz, Boeing, Delphi, Starbucks, Home Depot and Merck. In the process, he placed GAA among the revenue and employment leaders on the Top 100 list. Moreover, Pickard has developed a series of enterprises such as VITEC L.L.C., Grupo Antolin-Wayne, ARD Logistics, L.L.C., and Com-monwealth Regal Industries. He is also the owner of several McDonald’s franchises and five newspapers. Pickard was honored numerous times for his business acumen, actions to assist African Americans and other minorities in the business world, and commitment to teaching and mentoring others.

DAVID STEWARD

WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY EST. 1990
Through continuous innovation and forging partnerships with Cisco, Dell EMC, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and other tech giants, Steward has built World Wide Technology into a major force within the tech industry. He grew WWT from a small product reseller that he founded in 1990 with a staff of less than 10 into more than 7,000-employee technology solutions provider that can meet the networking, big data, IoT, security, and storage needs of large public and private organizations worldwide. With $13 billion in revenues, WWT is the nation’s largest Black-owned company and one of the biggest minority suppliers in the country. To better serve customers, WWT created the Advanced Technology Center, a brick-and-mortar campus containing labs used for product demonstrations, proofs of concept, building reference architectures, and more.

RICHELIEU DENNIS

SUNDIAL BRANDS; ESSENCE VENTURES EST. 1991 & 2018
In the early 1990s, Liberian immigrant Dennis and his partners at Sundial Brands hawked their culturally authentic organic skin and haircare products as street vendors. Over three decades, the company built value in its Shea Moisture and Nubian Heritage product lines. Sun-dial, which was named the 2008 Black Enterprise Emerging Company of the Year with gross sales of roughly $16 million, grew to become a BE 100s company, ranked No. 10 on the 2017 Top 100 with gross revenues of $300 million. Months later, the company would be sold to Unilever. However, the move would fuel Dennis’ entrepreneurial focus, allowing him to bring Essence back to 100% Black ownership after purchasing the venerable brand from Time Inc. and establish the $100 million New Voices Fund to make investments in ventures developed by female entrepreneurs of color.

MICHAEL LEE-CHIN

PORTLAND HOLDINGS INC. EST. 1991
Founder and chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., a privately held investment company in Burlington, Ontario, Jamaican-born Lee-Chin started investing at age 32 and used the proceeds to acquire AIC Limited, which he grew from $1 million in assets to $15 billion. The billionaire also has interests in telecommunications; tourism; private equity; and banking and insurance, including a 65% stake in National Commercial Bank Jamaica, the banking arm of the NCB Financial Group, the island nation’s largest financial services provider. Lee-Chin has modeled his value investment style after top investor Warren Buffet and continues to share these principles with investors around the globe.

DAYMOND JOHN

FUBU EST. 1992
Launching his urban clothing line in his mother’s home in the Hollis section of Queens, New York, John made FUBU–For Us By Us—a business phenomenon. After his mother mortgaged their home to provide startup capital and John was successful getting rappers—including neighborhood friend LL Cool J–to wear the homemade clothing in music videos and promotional campaigns, John was able to gain financing from Samsung Textiles after 27 banks turned him down. FUBU would earn more than $6 billion in global sales. By 2009, John joined the cast of ABC’s reality business show Shark Tank, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors–including him. His many investments include Black Enterprise Kidpreneur Award winner Moziah “Mo” Bridges, owner of Mo’s Bows, which signed a licensing partnership with the NBA to create bow ties that use the teams’ logos.

SEAN COMBS

BAD BOY ENTERTAINMENT; REVOLT EST. 1993 & 2013
Combs launched his music production company, Bad Boy Entertainment, in 1993, and worked with artists such as Mariah Carey, Mary Blige, and the late Biggie Smalls. He leveraged the success of his music empire to engage in an array of businesses—from apparel, through his Sean John line; to beverages, including his partnership with Diageo’s Cîroc vodka; and cable television with his development of digital music network Revolt TV in 2013.

BYRON ALLEN

ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS; ALLEN MEDIA GROUP EST. 1993 & 2018
Media mogul Allen is in perpetual motion, closing deals to expand his empire. Allen controls Entertainment Studios, a collection of 10 networks, including The Weather Channel. He also owns the digital Black news platform The Grio, and his Allen Media Group owns “Big Four” network television stations in California, Oregon, Indiana, and Minnesota, among other states. Allen has been litigious in pursuing his goals, settling lawsuits with media giants like Comcast to gain programming distribution and enable other African American entrepreneurs to access business opportunities. Next goal: pursue ownership of CNN.

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS CAPITAL GROUP EST. 1994
One of the new wave of Black investment bankers that emerged in the 1990s, Williams built his reputation in derivatives at the then-venerable Lehman Brothers and decided to create his own firm focused on engaging in corporate debt and equity financings, unlike Black firms struggling in the muni bond market. He launched BE 100s mainstay Williams Capital Group through a strategic alliance with global investment firm Jeffries & Co. for a 49% ownership stake. Wall Street took notice of the firm in 1998 when it co-managed Walt Disney Co.’s $200 million bond offering as well as served as an underwriter for transactions with Ford, GM, Walmart, American Express, and Con Edison. Williams Capital worked closely with the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department to restore credit and underwrite GM’s $15 billion re-IPO and AIG’s $8.7 billion stock sale. In 2019, Williams achieved another milestone: His firm merged with another BE 100s firm Siebert Cisneros Shank to create a financial powerhouse that is currently the nation’s largest minority- and women-owned investment banks. As such, it has grown to become an even stronger competitor to majority Wall Street firms.

SHAWN “JAY-Z” CARTER

ROC-A-FELLA RECORDS; ROC-A-WEAR; ROC NATION EST. 1996, 1999 & 2008
Co-founding Roc-A-Fella Records to capitalize on hip-hop music and to use it as a platform for urban fashion, Carter has grown his portfolio over the past 20 years and, according to Forbes, “has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion.” Through shrewd investments, acquisitions, and deals, his far-flung business kingdom includes Roc Nation and Tidal streaming service, among other ventures. Jay-Z also has a good eye for investments in innovative companies like Uber, beauty brand Julep, and stock trading app Robinhood.

ROBERT SMITH

VISTA EQUITY PARTNERS EST. 2000
Smith founded Vista in 2000 after leaving Goldman Sachs in 1999. Under his watch, Vista established a remarkable track record by regularly returning investors 30% or more on an annualized basis. As a result, he has outperformed his white peers on their turf. Since Vista was founded, Smith has been in charge of more than 290 completed transactions by the firm totaling more than $91 billion in transaction value. The largest BE 100s private equity firm continued to expand its holdings by acquiring Lithium Technologies. This deal allowed Vista to pick up a cloud-based social media man-agement and online community solutions company and enables the company to build its roster of more than 50 companies, including Cvent and Solera Holdings. Known for eliminating the $34 million debt of Morehouse’s 2019 graduating class, he has worked with major corporations to supply internships and jobs within the tech and financial fields.

THOMAS MOOREHEAD

STERLING MOTORCARS EST. 2004
Gaining foreign import franchises has always been elu-sive for Black auto dealers. However, veteran auto dealer Moorehead became a trailblazer as the world’s first African American Lamborghini and McLaren dealer in the history of both brands in 2016 and the world’s first African American Rolls-Royce dealer in 2013. His brands also include BMW, MINI Cooper and formerly Harley Davidson. He zoomed past the competition as Sterling Motorcars now serves as the leading provider of new and pre-owned luxury cars in the Mid-Atlantic region, with five locations in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Southern Pennsylvania.

SHEILA JOHNSON

SALAMANDER HOTEL & RESORTS EST. 2005
Johnson is a business titan most known for co-founding Black Entertainment Television with then-husband Robert Johnson and selling it to Viacom for roughly $3 billion in 2000. Following their divorce in 2002, Johnson launched the Salamander Resort & Spa in 2005. The luxury hotel company owns two properties and manages five others around the United States’ Southeastern region. Its growth strategy has resulted in an impressive 24% jump in revenues, from $170 million in 2016 to $210 million in 2017. Today, Johnson’s net worth is estimated at about $820 million while her resort company was recognized as the 2018 BE 100s Company of the Year. As vice chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and president and managing partner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, she is also the only African American woman to have ownership in three professional sports teams, including the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

SHONDA RHIMES

SHONDALAND EST. 2005
Rhimes is the first African American woman to create and executive produce a Top 10 network series—the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. However, throughout the years, her creative lightning has struck several times with series such as spin-offs Private Practice and Station 19, the political thriller Scandal, and the legal whodunit How to Get Away with Murder. Dominating ABC’s Thursday night lineup for well over a decade earned Rhimes $10 million a year in her studio pact with ABC. Rhimes’ success posi-tioned her production company, Shondaland, to cut a deal with Netflix three years ago for nine figures and creative control over her new properties. Her 2016 book, Year of Yes, became an instant New York Times bestseller and spun off a best-selling journal.

TYLER PERRY

TYLER PERRY STUDIOS EST. 2006
One of the most powerful Blacks in entertainment, Perry has developed a crop of plays, films, and TV shows that he owns and controls. He’s also made unprecedented multimillion-dollar production and distribution deals with Lionsgate, OWN, and BET. With the development of his 200,000-square-foot production facility in Atlanta, he provides work for African Americans in front of and behind the camera. The Hollywood executive is reportedly the seventh Black American billionaire, joining a roster that includes tech investor and philanthropist Robert Smith, NBA legend and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and tech founder David Stewart.

ANDRE “DR. DRE” YOUNG

BEATS EST. 2006
The critically acclaimed producer, rapper, and founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment co-founded Beats Electronics. Over the years, its signature Beats by Dre seized a considerable portion of the premium headphone market and secured a minority investment of $300 million from the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity powerhouse. Young became the first billionaire rapper when Apple purchased Beats for a reported $3 billion in May 2014.

BEYONCÉ KNOWLES-CARTER

PARKWOOD ENTERTAINMENT EST. 2008
For two decades, her anthems have formed the soundtracks for virtually every modern women’s move-ment. She has recently become a case study in the value of controlling one’s global brand and owning one’s intellectual property. Successfully using social media and innovative techniques to market her albums, she has repeatedly disrupted music’s business as usual. The 2013 surprise release of her namesake visual album resulted in record sales in the iTunes store, and she just keeps reinventing that wheel. From her 2010 creation of Parkwood Entertainment to last year’s announcement of a $60 million Netflix deal, Knowles-Carter has proven that she is way more than a multifaceted performer. She’s a significant employer with incredibly diverse talent, and she’s become a business beast. Her partnership between her athletic apparel line, Ivy Park, and Adidas has made headlines, as did a recently announced global agreement with Sony/ATV Music Pub-lishing, covering her entire song catalog.

TRISTAN WALKER

WALKER & COMPANY EST. 2013
In 2013, at just 31, a year after leaving his corporate job in tech, he founded Walker & Co. Brands, which includes both men’s grooming line Bevel and women’s haircare line Form. It all started with his frustration about the lack of quality products for Black men and the common concern of razor bumps. Fast-forward five years, and the company had gotten its products onto the shelves of Target nationwide and raised a reported $33 million in funding before Walker sold it to Procter & Gamble for an undisclosed amount. For the last two years, he’s continued to run the wholly owned subsidiary as its CEO—the first Black CEO in the 180-year history of P&G.