Today's Builders

He Ran a $23 Billion Business Unit. Then He Tried to Run the NAACP.

Bruce S. Gordon spent 35 years climbing from management trainee to president of Verizon's retail division — overseeing $23 billion in annual revenue and 35,000 employees. When he walked into the NAACP in 2005, he was the most powerful corporate executive ever to hold the role. He lasted 19 months.

By BEB Editor • 10 min read

Today's Builders

He Built the Bible of Black Business From a $250,000 Bank Loan and a Blank Page

Earl G. Graves Sr. did not inherit a media company. He created the category. In August 1970, with a loan from Chase Manhattan Bank, a small staff, and a mission that had no commercial precedent, he put the first issue of Black Enterprise on newsstands.

By BEB Editor • 9 min read

Today's Builders

She Built the App That Puts Every Streaming Service in One Place. Then She Drove It Into a Porsche.

Rose Hulse founded ScreenHits TV in London in 2012 when the streaming wars hadn't yet been named. By 2023 she had signed the first global deal to put a TV streaming platform inside a car — and done it in 56 countries at once.

By BEB Editor • 10 min read

Today's Builders

She Started on the Ramp Loading Luggage. She Ended Up Running the Company.

Stephanie Chung spent more than thirty years in aviation — parking planes at Boston Logan as a teenager, selling corporate accounts for US Airways at 25, generating $835 million in revenue at Flexjet, becoming the first African American president of a private aviation company and more.

By BEB Editor • 10 min read

Today's Builders

She Solved a Problem Nobody in Corporate America Knew They Had Until She Showed Them

Lisa S. Jones spent four years at NASA, built a career in supplier diversity at AT&T, then did something nobody had done before: compressed a high-definition video into a 15-kilobyte file that plays automatically inside an email. Read the rest of her story here.

By BEB Editor • 9 min read

Today's Builders

She Went to the Soweto Wine Festival and Came Back With a Business

In September 2005, Selena Cuffe was in South Africa on an unrelated business trip when she walked into the first annual Soweto Wine Festival. She left with the seed of what would become Heritage Link Brands — the largest global importer of Black-produced wine, operating in the U.S...but there's more

By BEB Editor • 10 min read

Today's Builders

The $27 Billion Question Nobody Was Answering

When the federal government allocated the largest climate investment in American history, the communities it was designed for had almost no one at the table who could actually close the deal. Trenton Allen had spent a decade making sure that changed.

By BEB Editor • 9 min read

Today's Builders

The Man Who Held Detroit's Deals Together When Nobody Else Could

For twelve years, George W. Jackson Jr. ran the organization that negotiated the transactions that kept Detroit in the game — through a financial crisis, an auto industry collapse, and the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. Then he left public service and built his own firm.

By BEB Editor • 9 min read

Beyond the Pitch Deck: How Kim Lewis and Dawn Dickson Rewrote the Rules of Growth Capital

The Black Executive Journal™ — Today's Builders

By Noah Carmichael • 20 min read

Today's Builders

Virginia Ali: The Matriarch of Black Broadway and Keeper of Community Through Six Decades of Change

From Segregated Rural Virginia to National Icon: How One Woman's Commitment to Kindness, Quality, and Community Built Washington D.C.'s Most Enduring Cultural Landmark

By BEB Editor • 19 min read

Today's Builders

Joseph Benjamin Anderson Jr.: From Combat Leadership to Corporate Excellence

A Distinguished Military Officer, Manufacturing Pioneer, and Entrepreneurial Trailblazer Whose Career Spans Six Decades of American Business and Service

By BEB Editor • 11 min read

Today's Builders

Denise Ajayi-Williams: Bridging Silicon Valley and Africa Through Innovation, Enterprise, and Cultural Vision

A Dynamic Entrepreneur, Author, and Economic Development Leader Creating Pathways Between Technology's Global Capital and Emerging African Markets

By BEB Editor • 14 min read

He Ran a $23 Billion Business Unit. Then He Tried to Run the NAACP.

He Built the Bible of Black Business From a $250,000 Bank Loan and a Blank Page

She Built the App That Puts Every Streaming Service in One Place. Then She Drove It Into a Porsche.

She Started on the Ramp Loading Luggage. She Ended Up Running the Company.

She Solved a Problem Nobody in Corporate America Knew They Had Until She Showed Them

She Went to the Soweto Wine Festival and Came Back With a Business

The $27 Billion Question Nobody Was Answering

The Man Who Held Detroit's Deals Together When Nobody Else Could

Beyond the Pitch Deck: How Kim Lewis and Dawn Dickson Rewrote the Rules of Growth Capital

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