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.