I believe it is fitting to pause to celebrate milestones during the course of a great undertaking. I can think of no better moment than the 40th anniversary of Black Enterprise to reflect and to appreciate the challenges met and triumphs achieved in the unwavering pursuit of our admittedly ambitious mission:Â To educate and empower African Americans to become full participants in wealth creation within the global economy. Over the past four years that I have been CEO, I have built on my father’s original vision, making it relevant for future generations.
Black Enterprise is now on the cutting edge of technology, delivering content and services in any form accessible to our audience. Just in the past decade, we have grown from a single-publication entity to an expansive multimedia enterprise. Today, our audience can gain our valuable, proprietary information through this magazine; on our two television shows, Our World with Black Enterprise and Black Enterprise Business Report; at our three events, Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo, Women of Power Summit, and Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge; and on the redesigned, turbocharged BlackEnterprise.com.
In this anniversary month, we have decided to make Black Enterprise available on a fifth platform: the iPad. Virtually every division of our company–from Editorial and Interactive to Sales and Marketing–came together for the development of our iPad app. With the tap of a finger, you will receive additional resources, real-time stock quotes, slideshows, and related videos. Our iPad edition will provide you with yet another engaging, accessible experience from Black Enterprise and the option to customize issues by subject matter, areas of interest, and priorities. Besides being what I consider the ultimate in customer service for our audience, I just think it’s very cool. Stay tuned for future mobile apps that will enable you to access our information in an even more dynamic and interactive fashion and make black enterprise a seamless part of your life.