Name: Craig Brown, PhD.
Profession: CEO & Sr. Partner of STEM Resource Partners
Age: 47
One word that describes you: Preeminent
Craig Brown is the Techpreneur & CEO of STEM Resource Partners, an IT consulting company. A well-rounded individual, Brown is a Big Data subject matter expert, technology & business consultant, philanthropist, cancer survivor and mentor.
As a front runner in the technology industry, he seeks to offer advice that minimizes the use of technical jargon and maximizes the use of real language, helping ease challenges that most companies and professionals face daily.
Brown’s educational background and professional experience are second to none. He possesses doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (The Wharton School) and B.S. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. Combine this with over 25 professional certifications in technology & business, Brown is a leading expert in the IT arena.
“I am inspired by using technology as a means to increase awareness of opportunities in the African American community,” Brown tells BE Modern Man. “Awareness allows for more African Americans and people of color to move out of the old age into the Tech Age, and into lucrative technology careers and small businesses.”
When Brown became a key player in the tech space, he realized that his position was a great way to liberate poverty-stricken people of color.
“At a minimum, I can encourage them to obtain a simple certification within a tech field,” Brown tells BE Modern Man. “I was 25 years old at the time and have been a mentor ever since.”
At 25 Brown began to transform himself into a business-minded, entrepreneur with a competitive edge. Looking for opportunities in the tech space and working within his passion, laid the foundation for success.
Brown says, “Sell your skills; not your experience. If you don’t have much experience then use your knowledge and leverage that as experience. What you know is every bit as important as what you have done.”
Being an overachiever is part of the necessary ingredients for excellence in the world of data.
“Relevance is also a key ingredient,” says Brown. “If you have these two ingredients you undoubtedly have the remaining ingredients: purpose, determination and ambition.”
For Brown, standing apart in the tech space is not that hard. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, and has been recognized for his achievements. But what makes Brown unique is what he has done with the recognition he has garnered.
“I have taken all of my accomplishments, achievements, recognition and success and poured it into every man, woman and child that would allow me to show them a way that worked for me could also work for them. I have single-handedly changed the lives of close friends, family members and total strangers by sharing myself with them.”
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Becoming an author of the book Untapped Potential (@supremepartner) has allowed Brown to share relatable stories with others. Beyond the pages of his book, Brown has lead Fortune 50 companies into the age of Big Data and is one of the few African American’s to actually help shape the meaning of Big Data, which is impacting the competitive nature of big business globally.
All of this did not come without setbacks and frustration.
“Beating the African American Stigma & Stereotype was very challenging initially in my career,” Brown tells BE Modern Man. “As a young person I had to overcome these challenges by not representing my culture openly. I could not talk too black or act too black or represent too much cultural imagery.”
Because of this, Brown’s chief aim is to reach other people of color and show them a successful track that anyone can pick up and use to help get ahead within a career or business.
“I plan to move into a teaching capacity by developing programs and workshops that will actually perform the necessary training to get them started and/or support those who have started that just need some help down this path,” says Brown. “Technology is a tool that can be used within any profession, so one doesn’t have to become a technological resource, but having these tools as a resource allows for entry into a landscape of opportunity.”
As more and more African Americans develop the skills necessary to compete in the tech space, equal representation within the industry is paramount.
“African American youth need to see men of color in positions of power, influence and success,” Brown tells BE Modern Man. “We need more portraits of African American men raising our kids and giving back to the community. We are out there, we just don’t see daily images representing and depicting us in ways that can shift how we see our men as a whole.”
Without stories coming from our voices and experiences there is no history. Without history there is no connection.
“We need more stories out there about African Americans to show the youth that pioneers exist and that we have quietly paved the way for them to follow. These stories help our youth connect with people like me that they may never meet but feel they know very well.”
Helping to connect the dots to success is what Brown has set out to do in his industry and community as a whole.
“To me a BE Modern Man stands for opportunity! The opportunity to display myself for those that would like to do what I do, go where I go and become what I have become.”
The BlackEnterprise.com team salutes Craig Brown for using his expertise in the field of tech to expose people of color to the opportunities that exist in the space. Brown shows us that increasing awareness, providing tools and resources, and helping to level the playing field is a doable action.
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