Urban Business Roundtable Spotlight: Petroleum Products CEO Stephen Hightower

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, Dywaine Betts Jr., speaks with Stephen L. Hightower, the founder and CEO of Hightowers Petroleum Co. Based in Middletown, Ohio, the petroleum products distribution company earned revenues of $303 million in 2012. Hightowers Petroleum, the 1oth largest Black-owned company in America, was recognized as the 2013 Black Enterprise Industrial Service Company of the Year.

The second largest minority-owned company in the Cincinnati area, the full-service, licensed motor fuel dealer transports fuel, gasoline and other petroleum-related products to clients including Walmart, Fedex, Duke Energy and Delta Airlines, as well as major automakers such as GM Canada, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota. The company has been recognized as a 2010 Regional Minority Supplier of the Year by the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Hightower joins the Roundtable to share how he launched his company and the growth strategies he used to build it into a regional powerhouse.

Also, UBR Contributor Samantha Pass speaks with PencilWorx Design Group Founder and CEO LaVon Lewis, who shares the importance of creating a powerful logo to brand your business.

Lewis and his Atlanta-based firm have earned more than 45 awards, including the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Technology Firm of the Year and an Atlanta Golden Addy from the American Advertising Federation. Lewis is also the author of Today Is A Great Day For A WOW Image! (Dunamis Publishing Associates).

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll hear Pepper Miller’s Y.O.U.-TURN segment, get motivation and inspiration from author and educator Dennis Kimbro, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, and our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments.

Pepper Miller is the Founder and President of The Hunter Miller Group 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. If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with us on Twitter @UBR1690.