UBR Spotlight: David Steward, CEO of America’s Largest Black-Owned Company

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita D. Young talks with David L. Steward, the founder and chairman of Maryland Heights, Mo.-based World Wide Technology Inc. (WWT), the nation’s largest Black-owned business. With 2010 revenues of more than $4.1 billion, WWT is ranked No. 1 on the Black Enterprise 100s list of the nation’s largest Black-owned industrial/service companies.

Steward, who grew up in rural Missouri, spent his early career in jobs including working for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company and as an account executive with Federal Express. Then, in 1990, he created WWT, a leading systems integrator and the leading supplier of advanced technology solutions to the U.S. government. The company offers products from more than 3,000 manufacturers from around the world and ranks as one of the leading Cisco Systems partners in the country. Steward is also the author of Doing Business By The Good Book: 52 Lessons on Success Straight From The Bible. (Hyperion)

Also, UBR Contributor Samantha Pass sits down with author and self-made entrepreneur Nolan McCants. The owner of a full-service public relations firm by the age of 18, McCants represented Fortune 500 companies, non-profit agencies, entrepreneurs and the entertainment industry, and was recognized in 1990 by the U.S. Small Business Administration as Illinois’ Young Entrepreneur of the Year. In addition to being an entrepreneur and author of the book You Can Do It!: Inspiration and Motivation For Those Daring To Dream BIG, McCants is also a pastor and international speaker, overseer of an international alliance of churches, and an award-winning fine arts photographer. McCants joins the Roundtable to share how he did and how you can do it, too.

In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I share that the 2012-2013 MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series (MUES) Business Plan Competition is now open and accepting entries. Since 1999, the MUES competition has invested more than $1.7 million in the dreams of entrepreneurs. This year brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs like you to enter your business plan for a chance to compete for a $50,000 business grant. I am proud to say that Black Enterprise is an official media partner of MUES. I have been a national judge for the competition for more than a decade, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some outstanding young entrepreneurs through the program, many of whom I continue to advise and mentor today. MUES is a fantastic opportunity for minority entrepreneurs. To learn more and to enter the competition, go to MillerCoorsMUES.com.

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 Khoa X. Ho of 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.