Baker Library Special Collections Exhibits

H. Naylor Fitzhugh joined the Howard University faculty in 1934 and stayed for 31 years, developing the university's marketing program, organizing its Small Business Development Center, and advising the student marketing association.

In 1965, Fitzhugh moved to Pepsi-Cola, where he led the development of targeted marketing strategies. Fitzhugh consulted with major corporations and helped launch the National Association of Market Developers, aimed at Black consumers.

At HBS, he helped found and was the first chairman of the African-American Alumni Association (HBSAAA). In 1996, the HBSAAA launched a fundraising campaign to endow a professorship in his name.

Fred Wilkinson started his 26-year career at Macy's as an assistant buyer and rose to overseeing buying in Europe and Asia. He was one of the first Black executives at Macy's.

Wilkinson later moved to the New York City Transit Authority, becoming executive officer for surface transit with operating responsibilities for the bus system in the five boroughs. He joined American Express as a marketing vice president in the travel-related services division. Before his retirement in 1993, he was promoted to senior vice president for worldwide communications.

Wilkinson was a trustee and national treasurer of the National Urban League.

A native of Boston who served in World War II, Herb Lyken became a professor of Finance and Accounting at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and taught for 15 years.

He was also a founder and board member of the Unity Bank and Trust in Boston, now the OneUnited Bank, which seeks to develop and build wealth in urban communities.

In 1971, Frank Jones was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning and became the first African American tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He started his career as an Assistant Dean at HBS and next worked as a marketing executive for Scott Paper Company. When the president of MIT approached him, he accepted a position as assistant director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at MIT.

Jones was active in the business community, joining numerous boards including the Corporation at Draper Laboratory, CIGNA, and Connecticut General Insurance Corporation, where Jones became the first African American board member.

Otis Gates grew up in Roxbury and graduated from both Harvard College and HBS.

In 1968, Gates began his career in information systems with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). He became a partner in 1976, specializing in the development of financial control and operating systems in retail and banking industries.

In 1985, Gates began to develop commercial and residential real estate. His first project was Concord Place, a 55,000 square-foot historic renovation of office and retail space in downtown Framingham. Two years later he oversaw a joint venture to develop a 56-unit affordable housing development in Dorchester.

Richard America has published on economic development, small and medium enterprise development in Africa, corporate philanthropy, and social marketing.

His books include: Developing the Afro-American Economy; Moving Ahead: Black Managers in American Business; The Wealth of Races (Editor); and Soul in Management: How African-American Managers Thrive in the Competitive Corporate Environment.

America has published in management journals including Harvard Business Review, worked for the Small Business Administration, US Department of Commerce, Bank of America, and Stanford Research Institute; taught at Georgetown University; and was director of Urban Programs at the University of California at Berkeley.

Robert James serves as president and chief executive officer of Carver State Bank, one of the nation's oldest African American owned commercial banks.

During his 30-year tenure as president and CEO, James pioneered the redevelopment of Atlanta and helped avert a financial crisis at Morris Brown College.

James also acted as chairman of the National Bankers Association, served on the board of the Georgia Telecommunication Authority, and purchased and revived the Savannah Tribune (now known as the Tribune). In 1989, James became the owner and publisher of the Fort Valley Herald. The previous publications are both dedicated to the African American community.

Former HBS assistant director of Admissions, Bert H. King worked as president and executive director of the Council for Opportunity in Graduate Management Education (COGME) from 1971 to 1984.

COGME was a consortium of ten leading business schools, including Harvard and MIT, designed to recruit outstanding minority students and provide them with financial aid and jobs after graduation. Nearly 2,000 minority students benefited from King's work.

King also served as vice president for institutional advancement at Howard University and director of corporate and foundation relations at Boston University. A foundation was established in King's honor to support the enrollment of African American students at HBS.

Michael Rashid, plan president and CEO, joined IlliniCare Health in August 2017.

Rashid is a pioneer in the Medicaid managed care landscape, helping to ensure there is access to quality and affordable health care to the “people most in need.”

Before joining IlliniCare Health, Rashid spent nearly twenty years with AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies and held multiple leadership positions. As CEO, he was instrumental in growing the company from a 500,000 member organization serving Medicaid recipients in the Philadelphia region into a 5 million member organization serving people in 15 states and Washington D.C.

Robert Ryan served as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Medtronic from 1993-2005. Before joining Medtronic, he was vice president and CFO at Union Texas Petroleum Corporation.

From 1975-1982, Ryan was a vice president at Citicorp, responsible for Citibank's relationships with all companies engaged in the broadcasting and cable television industries. From 1970-1975, Ryan was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Ryan is currently on the board of directors of General Mills and Stanley Black & Decker. He is also a trustee of Cornell University.

Herbert Wilkins began his career as a finance and management consultant before becoming president of Syndicated Communications in 1977.

Wilkins served in that capacity through 1989, then took posts as managing general partner of Syncom Capital and president of Syncom Management Company.

Wilkins developed a profitable strategy investing in communications companies targeting urban neighborhoods. The corporation's long-term investment in Radio One, a Black company that was the fastest-growing radio broadcasting company in 2000, paid tremendous dividends when the company went public in 1999. Wilkins also served as director of BET Holdings, the parent company of Black Entertainment Television.

Franklin Anderson co-founded and led Cleveland's Hough Area Community Development Corporation (HADC).

Before coming to HBS, Anderson served as chairman of the Cleveland chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He allegedly turned down the highest-paying job offer made to any member of the Class of 1971 to return to community development work.

He is the retired chair of the board of Custom Molders, Inc., of Durham, North Carolina.

Matt Augustine founded Biodrill Technical Solutions, a provider of sustainable energy-related products and services.

Augustine has also served as CEO and president of Eltrex Industries at RCSB Financial Inc. since 1976. Augustine serves as director at Business Council of New York State Inc. and director at RCSB Financial Inc.

Previously, Augustine served as director of Management Information Systems for Adage. He serves as president of the Black Business Association of Greater Rochester and is a board member of the New York State Business Council and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.

Broadcast executive and businessman W. Don Cornwell was hired by Goldman Sachs in 1971 and later promoted to chief operating officer of the investment banking division's corporate finance department.

In 1988, Cornwell left the securities firm to found Granite Broadcasting Corporation. During his 21 years as chairman and CEO, the company purchased 15 television stations and became the largest African American-controlled television broadcasting company in America.

Cornwell has received numerous honors and corporate directorships throughout his career including serving on the boards of Pfizer, Avon Products, American International Group, and CVS-Caremark Corporation.

In 1981, John Oxendine was named president and CEO of Broadcast Capital Fund, a venture capital organization providing assistance to minority controlled communications businesses.

Oxendine went on to found and become chairman and CEO of Blackstar Communications, which acquired and operated commercial television stations. He then formed Blackstar with Fox Broadcasting and purchased Broadcast Capital.

He served on the boards of Paxson Communications Corporation, Medlantic Healthcare Group, and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, among others. He authored articles on venture capital and media investing, and was inducted into the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Hall of Fame in 2001.

Woody Brittain's long tenure at Price Waterhouse culminated in his role as COO, where he directed the historic merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand.

After retiring from PwC, Brittain founded the executive search and consulting firm Professional Resources on Demand. A dedicated volunteer, he mentored dozens of young people while serving on the boards of the National Urban League and Northern Virginia Urban League. He also served on the boards of five Fortune 500 firms.

Brittain leant his expertise to the Yale Corporation Audit Committee and the Dean's Board of Advisors of HBS. Yale bestowed its highest alumni honor, the Yale Medal, on Brittain in 2011.

Charles Bush was an American civil rights activist, senior corporate executive, and United States Air Force officer.

Bush was one of the first African Americans to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and was the first African American page for the United States Supreme Court.

After HBS, he worked as an investment banker with White Weld & Co., and served as assistant treasurer for Celanese Corporation. He went on to other manufacturing companies, including Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Bush was involved with the development of a cell phone and television network business, and started his own phone company.

In 1973, the Harvard Business Review published Edward Jones's personal account, “What It's Like to Be a Black Manager.” At the time he was a division manager at New York Telephone Company.

A decade later, HBR asked Jones to assess the progress of Black managers at corporations in the United States. In 1986, he wrote the HBR article, “Black Managers, The Dream Deferred.”

From New York Telephone he moved to AT&T, where he oversaw nationwide strategic planning for media markets and initiated the company's satellite strategy. In 1984, Jones formed Corporate Organizational Dynamics, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in organizational effectiveness.

Claudine B. Malone serves as CEO of Financial and Management Consulting Inc. She previously served as a senior executive and CIO at Cardinal Health Inc., Allegiance, Baxter International, and AlliedSignal Corporation.

She was a visiting professor at the Darden Business School of the University of Virginia from 1984 to 1987, an adjunct professor of the School of Business Administration at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1984, and an associate professor at HBS from 1972 to 1981.

Malone has served on a number of boards including Hannaford Brothers, Anadarko Holdings, Houghton Mifflin, and the Limited Stores, and she has served as chair of Federal Reserve of Richmond.

For 14 years, Benaree Wiley served as president and CEO of the Partnership, increasing the representation of professionals of color and opportunities for their leadership in Boston area businesses and institutions.

Wiley's management consultant and entrepreneurial experience were instrumental in building the Partnership into a sustainable and influential social enterprise. She also served as a consultant to such corporations as Abt Associates, Contract Research Corporation, and Urban Systems Research and Engineering.

Wiley is currently a director on the boards of the Dreyfus Mutual Funds, the Pepsi African American Advisory Board, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Jeff Humber is regional manager of public finance for Maryland, Washington, and Virginia for PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Previously Humber was president and chief executive officer for Delon Hampton and Associates, a Washington, D.C. engineering and consulting firm. He also served in various roles during a 19-year career at Merrill Lynch, including managing director in the Public Finance Group, co-CEO of Merrill Lynch South Africa, and senior vice president, Head of Global Diversity.

From 1982-1984 he was director of the Department of Finance and Revenue for the District of Columbia, serving as a member of the mayor's cabinet and developing the city's revenue budget, among other tasks.

After completing his MBA, John Moorhead spent almost thirty years working in marketing in the food and beverages industry.

He began his career as product manager responsible for marketing at General Mills, and then went on to become marketing director at PepsiCo-Frito Lay, vice president of Marketing at Taco Bell, and vice president of Marketing at PepsiCo.

In 1997, he was named president of Bestfoods, where was responsible for commercial management of branded food products (Knorr, Hellmann's, Mazola). He went on to help lead the turnaround of the Home & Office Papers division of International Paper.

Vernon Stansbury has served in executive level positions with IBM, Exxon, Cummins Engine, and the United States Department of Commerce.

Stansbury is a member of the board of directors of the Intelligent Transportation System Consortium, the Minority Business Technology Transfer Consortium, the Contract Services Association of America, and the Black Presidents' Roundtable Association.

He is the president and founder of the Scientific and Commercial Systems Corporation, which he established in 1983.

Pat Alsup currently serves as US ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia. She was nominated by President Obama and confirmed in 2015.

Alsup is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, and has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Ghana and The Gambia.

Prior to that she was director of the State Department's Office of Central African Affairs. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1992, she worked in private sector market research, strategic planning and economic development.

Edward Cleveland is the director of Small Business Lending at MultiFunding Business Loan Advisors.

Over his 30-plus years in small business financing, he has assisted many growth-stage entities in obtaining access to capital, with sources of funding ranging from banks to high net-worth individuals.

Cleveland was a presidential appointee to the Small Business Administration's Investment Division, where he organized town hall meetings and convened several advisory committees. He has also functioned as the principal financial planner and CFO of numerous businesses seeking to expand their ventures. His early career included corporate positions with General Foods, Kraft, and Sealtest Breyers Ice Cream.

Dennis Hightower served as president of Disney Consumer Products based in Paris and led the company's entry into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and post-Apartheid South Africa.

Hightower grew Disney's business from $650 million to $4.5 billion with 42 countries reporting to him through the 16 subsidiaries and joint ventures in the region. In 1995, he returned to the United States to serve as president of Walt Disney Television & Telecommunications.

After his retirement from the Walt Disney Company, Hightower became a professor of Management at HBS. In 2009, he was appointed by President Barack Obama as deputy secretary of commerce.

As managing partner of Syncom Venture Partners, Terry Jones possesses over 32 years of venture capital investment management experience and has participated in over 125 investments during his tenure with Syncom and its affiliates.

Jones currently serves on the board of a number of Syncom Investments, including V-me Media, Weather Decisions, and TV One. Prior to joining Syncom, he worked in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a co-founder and vice president of Kiambere Savings and Loan and a lecturer at the University of Nairobi.

He also serves on the board of the Robert Toigo Foundation and the Howard University Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation Institute.

Kenneth Powell is a business and social enterprise leader with a focus on enterprise and individual leadership.

Powell's past global experience includes work as an executive coach, corporate executive, senior military officer, top management consultant, entrepreneur, and social enterprise leader across many industries and functional endeavors.

He has held senior level positions with Right Management, HSBC, and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since 1995, he has served as the president of the HBS African-American Alumni Association (HBSAAA).

Peter Bynoe received his AB, MBA, and JD from Harvard University.

In 1989, he headed up a partnership with fellow Chicago entrepreneur Bertram Lee, tennis legend Arthur Ashe, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ron Brown to purchase the Denver Nuggets for $65 million. Breaking ground as the first minority owner of an NBA franchise, he opened the doors of sports management for all minorities.

Bynoe founded Telemat Ltd., a business consulting firm, in 1982. Since 2014, he has been managing director of Equity Group Investments.

A senior managing director at Brock, Walter Morris has broad executive management, lending, and advisory experience spanning more than three decades.

Morris's career includes innovative work in capital markets, mortgage banking, commercial banking, international finance, and credit and operational risk. He served a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Banks.

During a successful 14-year career as principal/partner at Ernst & Young, Morris advised a number of the firm's largest financial services clients, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae. He was elected by the Ernst & Young partnership to serve a three-year term on the firm's governance committee.

Cheryl Owens-Howard is senior vice president of Communications, Diversity & Inclusion at Simmons College, where she leads university-wide efforts to raise brand awareness and recruit new students for all undergraduate and graduate programs.

An undergraduate alumna of Simmons, Howard joined the college in 2007 with 19 years in marketing and brand management experience at the Gillette Company and four years of marketing and customer relationship experience at Digital Equipment Company.

At Gillette, Howard directed the development of new products launched in international and national markets. Her last assignment involved the management of the North American Personal Care group, a $450 million business.

Eula Adams worked at Touche Ross before attending HBS and returned there after graduation, becoming the first African American partner in the firm.

In 1988, Adams led the firm's audit function with a staff of over one hundred. When the firm merged with Deloitte, Adams assumed even greater responsibility as an executive committee member for the Atlanta office.

Adams later held senior executive roles at First Data Corporation, where he oversaw 11,000 employees in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and revenues of $1.5 billion. Adams's corporate rise led him to be named one of the 50 most powerful Black executives by Fortune magazine in 2002.

Eglon Simons is president and CEO of the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC).

A strong and progressive leader, Simons's career in media and communications spans more than thirty years. Upon earning an MBA from HBS, Simons joined CBS New York, where he held several managerial positions. He concluded his 13-year run with the network as vice president of Sales and Marketing for the CBS Television Stations Division.

In 1990, Simons embarked on a 21-year career with Cablevision Systems Corporation, becoming executive vice president of Cablevision's Rainbow Advertising Sales Company, a senior management role he fulfilled until retiring from the company in 2011.

In 2010 National Law Journal named Ted Wells one of “The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers.” In 2006 he was named “Lawyer of the Year.”

A partner and co-chair of the Litigation Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Wells has extensive experience in white-collar defense, complex civil and corporate litigation, SEC regulatory work, health care fraud, and class action litigation.

Since 2013, Chambers USA has named Wells a “Star Performer” in three categories: nationwide trial litigation, New York general commercial litigation, and New York white-collar crime and government investigations. In 2017, he received the New York Law Journal's “Lifetime Achievement” award.

Ann Fudge is the former chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, a global network of marketing communications companies.

Fudge previously served as president of the Beverages, Desserts, and Post Division, a $5 billion unit of Kraft Foods, and spent nine years at General Mills. She serves as chair of the United States Program Advisory Panel of the Gates Foundation, as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Brookings Institution, and on the Council on Foreign Relations.

Fudge also serves on the boards of General Electric, Novartis, Unilever, Infosys, the Harvard Corporation Finance Committee, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Paula Sneed is the chairperson and CEO of Phelps Prescott Group, a strategy and management consultancy she co-founded in 2007.

In 1977, Sneed joined General Foods, which later merged with Kraft Foods, and for over twenty-nine years held a variety of marketing, general management, and senior executive roles including the company's chief marketing officer, executive vice president, president of several operating divisions, and executive vice president, Global Marketing Resources and Initiatives.

Sneed is a director of Airgas, Charles Schwab Corporation, and TE Connectivity. She is a member of both the national board of directors of Teach For America and the HBS Visiting Committee.

As an Emmy-winning correspondent for CBS News, Jacqueline Adams covered the groundbreaking campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson for President and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President.

She then spent five years as a White House correspondent during the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. In the 1990s, she described her beat as “mayhem and the arts,” with stories ranging from the trial of mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer to museum exhibitions showcasing French Impressionist masters.

She launched a second career as a communications strategist advising corporate and non-profit clients. In this capacity, she played a major role in launching the internet portal Africa.com.

Businessman and lawyer Neil Brown graduated from Harvard College, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School.

Brown worked as an attorney with Sherman & Sterling and joined Home Box Office (HBO) in 1981, where he went on to serve as vice president of Programming. In 1986, Brown and his wife, Amsale Aberra, launched Amsale Aberra, Inc., a bridal gown company. In 1998, he founded Anavista Entertainment, a music, film, and television production, distribution, and consulting company.

In 2001, Brown became chief executive officer of the Amsale Group, which includes the luxury bridal collections of Amsale, Christos, and Kenneth Pool.

Carlton Guthrie is co-chairman and president of Detroit Chassis, one of the leading assemblers of running chassis, providing chassis to all the major RV bodybuilders as well as school buses and postal vehicles.

He began his post-HBS career with Jewel Companies, worked for McKinsey and James H. Lowry & Associates, and served as chairman, president, and CEO of Trumark, Inc., an automotive stamping and assembly company.

Guthrie has earned several honors including the Ernst & Young Michigan Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, Supplier of the Year Award from the National Minority Supplier Development Council, and Michigan Manufacturer of the Year Award from the Impressions 5 Museum.

Jonathan Mariner was appointed chief investment officer of Major League Baseball in 2014, where he manages the industry's Baseball Endowment fund, its pension assets, and potential new strategic investments.

Previously, Mariner served as MLB's chief financial officer. He upgraded MLB's financial function, created a league-wide risk management program to insure all property and casualty risks across the league through a new captive insurance company, improved the budgeting and financial reporting of MLB's central offices, and implemented an improved club financial reporting and long range forecasting process.

Before joining MLB, Mariner served as executive vice president and CFO of the Florida Marlins.

Stan O'Neal rose through the ranks of corporate America to become the first African American to head a major firm on Wall Street when Merrill Lynch named him CEO in 2002.

After HBS, O'Neal joined GM as a treasurer's analyst and within two years ascended to director of the treasury office.

Nine years later he took a position with financial giant Merrill Lynch. By 1998, he had moved into management, first as chief financial officer (1998), then president of the US private client group (2000), president and chief operating officer (2001), chief executive officer (2002), and finally chairman in 2003.

Anthony Harris is president and CEO of Campbell/Harris Security Equipment Company (CSECO), the world's leader in portable contraband-detection equipment.

The company's devices enable agents from the Department of Homeland Security, United States Customs and Border Protection, and about sixty foreign governments to detect even the most cleverly concealed drugs, cash, and guns. Harris notes, “I come from inner-city Chicago, an area that was decimated by drugs. To...prevent some young people from following the wrong path is quite fulfilling.”

Harris received his engineering degree from Purdue University. Inspired by a campus group, he co-founded the National Society of Black Engineers, which now has 30,000 members.

Lawrence Jackson, senior advisor, joined New Mountain in 2008. Jackson has over thirty years of operations and logistics management experience leading consumer product companies and retailers.

Jackson was president and CEO of Global Procurement at Walmart, where he directed purchasing offices in 28 countries and implemented programs to improve the company's factory sourcing. Prior to joining Walmart, Jackson was president and COO at Dollar General Stores, where he led significant new store openings and improved same-store results.

Previously, Jackson was senior vice president of Supply Operations for Safeway and spent 16 years at PepsiCo in various management positions.

Henry McGee joined the HBS faculty in 2013 after retiring as president of Home Box Office (HBO) Home Entertainment.

During his 34-year career with HBO he held posts in a wide range of areas including family programming, film acquisition, and international co-production. Named president of HBO Home Entertainment in 1995, McGee received numerous industry awards and oversaw the digital and DVD release of many blockbusters, including The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Band of Brothers, and Game of Thrones.

Since 2015 he has served as a director of TEGNA, a broadcast and digital media company, as well as AmerisourceBergen, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical services companies.

Adebayo Ogunlesi is the chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Partners, overseeing a portfolio that includes Gatwick Airport, the Port of Melbourne, and East India Petroleum. He is also the lead director of Goldman Sachs.

He previously served as executive vice chairman and chief client officer of Credit Suisse, where he was a member of the executive board and management council and chaired the chairman's board.

Earlier in his career, Ogunlesi was an attorney with the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. From 1980-81 he served as a law clerk to Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall.

Quintin Primo is the chairman and CEO of Capri Investment Group. He chairs the Global Management Board and is a member of the firm's investment committee.

Since establishing Capri in 1992, he has overseen the firm's origination of approximately $10 billion in real estate equity, debt, and structured finance transactions.

He is a past board member of the Real Estate Roundtable and Pension Real Estate Association, a member of the Urban Land Institute, and a board member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He chairs the Primo Center for Women and Children, a transitional shelter serving the homeless.

A serial entrepreneur, Anthony Chase has started and sold three successful ventures and now owns and operates a fourth, ChaseSource.

His first company, Chase Radio Partners, operated multiple radio stations. His next endeavor, nationwide cell phone service provider Cricket Wireless, was a joint venture with Qualcomm. The third, ChaseCom, built and operated call centers around the world and sold to AT&T Corporation in 2007.

ChaseSource, his staffing and real estate development firm, was ranked by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the nation's largest minority owned companies. ChaseSource recently became an owner of the Marriott Hotel at George Bush InterContinental Airport in Houston.

Al Haymon is an advisor, manager, and promoter to many top boxers in the United States.

Haymon began promoting musicians while still in school and worked with such notables as the O'Jays, M.C. Hammer, New Edition, Whitney Houston, and Mary J. Blige. He eventually created 14 businesses, mostly to deal with myriad aspects of live concert promotion. He and his partner, Phil Casey, were among the first urban concert promoters to package several acts into a single tour.

Haymon came to boxing in 2000. He received the Al Buck Award as Manager of the Year from the Boxing Writers Association of America on multiple occasions. His biggest client is Floyd Mayweather Jr.

As CMO of Mary Kay, Inc., Sheryl Adkins-Green leads global marketing strategy, brand positioning, new product development, advertising, digital marketing, social media, product education, and customer insights.

Adkins-Green joined Mary Kay in 2009 and was named chief marketing officer in 2011. In this role she drives long-term growth, supports more than three million Independent Beauty Consultants, and has been instrumental in developing a product portfolio strategy generating innovative skin care, coloring, and fragrance products.

She has also driven the development of digital marketing and social media tools that enable independent beauty consultants to successfully sell Mary Kay products anytime and anywhere.

Emerick Woods served as the president and CEO of Talari Networks from 2011-2016.

Woods has more than thirty years of high technology and executive management experience from the telecommunications, internet, and enterprise software industries and has served as CEO of several technology companies including Global IP Solutions, V-Enable, CastBridge, and Aligo.

He served on the boards of xAD, LocalAdXchange, Quova, and Talari Networks. He is an active board member for non-profit organizations such as Shelter Network and Plugged in Enterprises.

Margaret Young is a senior partner at Veregate, specializing in growing profitable customer relationships. Her clients include global enterprises in telecommunications, travel and hospitality, financial services, pharmaceutical, and technology.

Young was general manager of OgilvyOne Consulting, responsible for creating new offerings in brand and marketing strategy development, planning, analytics, customer experience design, and database marketing.

She began her career at IBM, rapidly advancing through positions in sales, marketing, strategy, and product management including director of strategy for its US Marketing & Service division. She was also a senior partner with the Cambridge Group.

Bill Lewis is a managing director and co-chairman of Investment Banking at Lazard Ltd, where he has advised global corporations such as ADT, American Express, Amgen, Owens Corning, Procter & Gamble, Silver Lake Partners, and Xerox.

Between 1994 and 2004, Lewis was head or co-head of the Global Banking Department, the Global Mergers & Acquisitions Department, and Morgan Stanley Realty. His last position at Morgan Stanley was co-head of the Global Banking Department.

A member of the Economic Club of New York, Lewis serves on several boards, including the Partnership for New York City, the New York Philharmonic, Darden Restaurants, and Ariel Investment Trust.

George Van Amson is a managing director at Morgan Stanley in the Institutional Equity Division–Sales and Trading, Management. He also serves as head of North American Analyst and Associate Advising and Development Programs.

He was previously head of North American Recruiting in the Institutional Equities Division of Morgan Stanley and manager of Sales Trading Service Desk for Global Wealth Management clients.

A 35-year veteran of Wall Street, Van Amson was selected in 1993 as a World Economic Forum global leader. In 1992, 1996, and 2006 he was named to Black Enterprise magazine's "Top African Americans on Wall Street."

Raymond McGuire is Citi's global head of Corporate and Investment Banking, on Citi's Institutional Clients Group executive committee, and a board member of Citigroup Global Markets.

Before joining Citi, he was global co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley; managing director in Merrill Lynch's mergers and acquisitions group; and an original member and then partner/managing director of Wasserstein Perella & Co.

McGuire serves on multiple boards including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the New York Public Library, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Citi Foundation.

Bonita C. Stewart serves as vice president, Partner Business Solutions, Americas at Google, Inc. and as vice president of US sales and operations.

Stewart is responsible for Google's monetization strategies for advertisers and publishers across all verticals. She's held senior sales management positions at Google since 2006, overseeing strategy and business plan development for automotive, finance, and travel, spanning more than six hundred accounts.

From 2002-2006, Stewart worked for DaimlerChrysler AG, where she was director, Chrysler Group, Interactive Communications and prior to that, director, Chrysler Brand Communications. She co-founded and was president and chief operating officer for Nia Enterprises LLC.

The Honorable Johann "John" Clendenin was appointed United States Virgin Islands Public Service Commissioner in 2014. At the federal level, he has served on two committees of the National Association of Utilities Commissioners.

Clendenin is founder, president, and CEO of Inner Circle Logistics, Inc. based on St. Croix. ICLogistics is the core operating division of a global transportation and logistics firm that specializes in net-centric solutions, complex Systems of Systems (SoS) data, and document interoperability.

Clendenin started the company while on leave from his position as senior lecturer at HBS. He is currently a distinguished visiting professor at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

Wanda Felton was nominated to serve as vice chair of the Export-Import Bank of the United States ("Ex-Im Bank") by President Obama in 2011 and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.

Felton was nominated to a second term at Ex-Im Bank. During her tenure she voted on approximately $25 billion of financing spanning global markets and industries. She led or participated in trade missions to seven African countries to focus attention on trade and investment opportunities.

Felton has served on the boards of numerous philanthropic and arts organizations, including the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Howard Theatre Restoration Corporation, and the Achievement First Apollo School Board.

Pam Joyner founded Avid Partners in 2000 to provide marketing consulting services to the alternative investment industry.

Prior to Avid Partners, Joyner was a partner at Bowman Capital Management and worked for a number of years in the Marketing and Client Service group at Capital Guardian Trust Company. She held other positions at Fidelity Management Trust Company, Kidder Peabody, and Merrill Lynch.

She served as a co-chair of the San Francisco Ballet Association and has been a director at First Republic BanCorp. She also serves as a board trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Joyner is a recognized collector of African American art.

As Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University, Linda Oubre brings more than two decades of corporate, entrepreneurial, and teaching experience to the role.

She co-founded and was president of BriteSmile, was president of Tri Com Ventures, oversaw business development at the Los Angeles Times, and once served as assistant director of MBA Admissions at HBS.

“In a world where only 18 percent of business school deans are women, and less than 1 percent are African American...HBS has allowed me to be a visible example so that more people who look like me will see what's possible.”

Argelia Rodriguez was the first president and CEO of the District of Columbia College Access Program (DC-CAP), an organization established in 1999 to encourage and enable public and public charter high school students in Washington, D.C. to enter and graduate from college.

As president and CEO, Rodriguez is responsible for operating 40 college information centers in the District's public and public charter high schools around the city.

Under the leadership of Rodriguez, DC-CAP has assisted more than thirteen thousand students to enroll in college, helping to double the D.C. public and public charter high school student college enrollment rate and establishing DC-CAP as a national leader in college retention research and practice.

Reginald Van Lee is a philanthropist, arts advocate, and retired executive vice president of the global management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Van Lee co-authored the book, Mega communities – How Leaders of Government, Business and Non–Profits Can Tackle Today's Global Challenges Together. In 2008, Consulting magazine named him one of the “Top 25 Consultants” in the world.

Van Lee was appointed by President Obama to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Deborah Wright served as president and chief executive officer of Carver Bancorp and Carver Federal Savings Bank from 1999–2016, the nation's largest publicly–traded African American led bank.

Prior to joining Carver, Wright served as president and CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, which spurred redevelopment in Harlem.

Previously, she was commissioner of the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, where she funded development of 21,000 affordable housing units and managed 43,000 residential properties. She also held roles with the New York City Housing Authority Board and the Partnership for New York.

Herman Bulls is vice chairman, Americas, as well as an international director and the founder of Jones Lang LaSalle's highly acclaimed Public Institutions Business Unit, specializing in comprehensive real estate solutions for federal, state, and local governments; economic development and nonprofit organizations; and higher education institutions.

Bulls co-founded and served as president and CEO of Bulls Capital Partners, a multi–family financing company under the Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program. His partners included SunTrust and Goldman Sachs. He sold the firm in 2010.

Prior to joining JLL, Bulls completed almost twelve years of active duty service with the United States Army.

Don Rice is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Rice Financial Products Company.

Under Rice's stewardship, Rice Financial has provided underwriting services on municipal bond transactions totaling more than $415 billion and has executed derivative transactions with an aggregate notional amount of more than $30 billion.

He was named among 2011's “Top Blacks on Wall Street” by Black Enterprise magazine and was selected as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the National Association of Securities Professionals in 2002. In 2000, Black Enterprise named Rice Financial its “Financial Company of the Year.”

As CEO of Johnson Publishing Company from 2010–2017, Desir&eactue;e Rogers was the first "non-family" lead of the 70-year-old family business, hired to reposition the company as a key player in the African American digital space.

Rogers served as the first African American social secretary for the White House during the Obama administration, was appointed by Governor Jim Edgar to run the Illinois State Lottery, served as chief marketing officer for Peoples Energy, and was then elected president of that company's two utility subsidies: Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.

Rogers has served on multiple corporate and civic boards, including Equity Residential, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, and Northwestern Hospital.

Steven Rogers joined the faculty of HBS in 2012. He teaches Entrepreneurial Finance and a new course that he created called “ Black Business Leaders and Entrepreneurship”.

Prior to HBS, he taught for 17 years at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He received the Outstanding Professor Award for the Executive Program 26 times and the MBA Lawrence Levengood Outstanding Professor of the Year award twice. Before joining the Kellogg faculty, he owned and operated two manufacturing firms and one retail operation. He also worked at Bain and Company, Cummins Engine Company, and UNC Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Dr. Patricia Taylor joined the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on detail from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2004 and accepted a permanent position with ODNI in 2007.

A professional in government, management consulting, and private industry, she was named chief of the Office of Intelligence Community (IC) EEO and Diversity in 2008. Reporting to the DNI, she advised IC senior leaders, set policy, and implemented innovative strategies to improve equity, inclusion, and diversity at all 17 IC agencies and components.

Before ODNI, Dr. Taylor served for 10 years at NSA, where she was part of the NSA director's senior leadership team.

Paul Viera is the founder and CEO of EARNEST Partners, a global investment firm overseeing over $20 billion for municipalities, states, corporations, endowments, and universities.

Viera conceived and developed Return Pattern Recognition®, the investment methodology used to screen equities at EARNEST Partners. His previous experience includes global partner at Invesco and vice president at Bankers Trust.

Viera is a member of many boards including the Board of Dean's Advisors for HBS, the Board of Foreign Advisors of Haitong Securities (the second largest Chinese securities firm), the Carter Center Board of Councilors, and the National Center for Human and Civil Rights.

Alan Wilson is a portfolio manager at Capital Group. He has 31 years of investment experience and has been with Capital Group for 25 years.

Earlier in his career, as an equity investment analyst at Capital, he covered US construction and housing, machinery and engineering, environmental services, energy equipment, trucks, personal care, household products, and energy (oil and gas drilling) companies.

Before joining Capital, Wilson was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and an engineer with Texas Eastern Corp.

Carla Harris is vice chairman of Wealth Management and senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley, as well as a gospel recording artist, high impact speaker, and author of Expect to Win.

Harris was named to Fortune magazine's list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America” and its “Most Influential” list, U. S. Banker's “Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance,” and Black Enterprise's “Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business.”

In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Harris to chair the National Women's Business Council. She also chaired the Morgan Stanley Foundation from 2005–2014 and sits on the boards of several community organizations.

Stuart Taylor is the chief executive officer of the Taylor Group. Since 2002, the Taylor Group has invested in ten companies in industries including financial services, technology, and health care.

Prior to forming the Taylor Group, Taylor spent 19 years with major Wall Street firms including Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, CIBC World Markets, and Bankers Trust.

He currently serves as a board member for Ball Corporation, Hillenbrand, Inc., and United Stationers, Inc.

Jide Zeitlin is the founder of the Keffi Group and was previously a partner at Goldman Sachs.

At Goldman Sachs he held a number of senior management positions in the investment banking division, including that of global chief operating officer.

He is chairman of the board at Coach, Inc. and board member of AMG. Zeitlin is also chair of the board of trustees at Amherst College and a member of the Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors.

Sir Damon Buffini serves as a co-founder of Social Business Trust. Buffini was a partner and head at Permira Advisers Ltd. where he focused on the consumer, financial services, health care, industrial, and technology sectors.

Buffini served as the founding partner at Permira Advisers Ltd. Under his leadership, Permira's funds under management grew from €1.9 billion to over €20 billion and the firm expanded its international network of offices from four to 12.

Buffini was knighted in the 2016 Birthday Honours for his voluntary and charitable services.

Teresa Clarke is chairman and CEO of Africa.com LLC, the nation's fastest growing Africa-related website, with about five million page views monthly from visitors in over two hundred countries.

In her previous position as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, Clarke led mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions for Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Europe. She also led Goldman Sachs's Africa-Aspen Program for emerging public- and private-sector African leaders.

She was chosen “Humanitarian of the Year” by the International Women's Society of Nigeria and her many awards include one from the South African government for her work with children.

After a brief career in the NBA, where he played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers, Butch Graves enrolled at HBS.

After graduating, he joined Black Enterprise. In 1998, Graves became its president and chief operating officer and in 2006 was named president and CEO, responsible for strategic positioning and overall corporate profitability.

In 2000, Graves co-founded the Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Corporate Growth Fund. He also serves as a managing director of the Pinnacle Minority Supplier Development Fund and is on the board of directors of AutoZone and the Bermuda Tourism Authority. In 2002, he was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement.

Pamela Thomas-Graham is the founder and CEO of Dandelion Chandelier and the lead independent director of the board of the Clorox Company.

Thomas-Graham was the first Black woman to be elected partner at McKinsey & Co., where she was a leader in the firm's Consumer, Retail, and Media practices. She also served as global chair and CEO of CNBC Television and CNBC.com, was a group president at Liz Claiborne, Inc., and served as a member of the Executive Board at Credit Suisse.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Melissa James is a vice chairman and managing director of Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley. She is currently chief risk officer for lending, where she oversees capital, liquidity, and balance sheet management across Global Capital Markets.

James's previous leadership positions with the firm include global head of Loan Products, where she managed over $80 billion of loan commitments for clients, and chair of the Capital Commitment Committee.

James has been recognized by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the "Top 75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street" and as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.”

Belinda Stubblefield is the national site director and chief diversity officer of Year Up, which helps urban young adults successfully transition into professional careers in just one year.

Stubblefield partners with five Year Up sites (Atlanta, Baltimore, Jacksonville, National Capital Region, and South Florida). She is also a partner at Paradies-Atlanta, LLC, and the owner of Stubblefield Ventures, LLC, managing airport concessions in partnership with the Paradies Shops, Inc.

Stubblefield has previously held marketing positions at IBM, P&G, Nestle, and Delta Air Lines.

Rena Clark is a managing partner at Laurel Oak Capital Partners, with almost twenty-five years of general management, private equity, and entrepreneurial experience.

Clark is a former partner with GenNx360 Capital Partners, where she led or co-led transactions across a range of industrial sectors with aggregated company revenues of $1.01B. Before that, she served as CEO of two private equity-backed manufacturing companies and had roles with General Electric, Bain & Co., Harvard Business School, and the Kraft Sports Group.

Along with serving on the Initiative for Competitive Inner Cities (ICIC) board, Clark is a trustee at both Lasell College and the Carroll School.

Media veteran Keith Clinkscales was hand-picked by Sean Combs to lead one of the largest independent network launches in cable television history, Revolt Media & TV.

Clinkscales served as CEO of Revolt from 2013-2016. Other senior posts include SVP at ESPN, chairman and CEO of Vanguarde Media, and eight years at Vibe, growing the magazine into the definitive urban lifestyle publication. At ESPN, Clinkscales created the award-winning 30 for 30 documentaries and produced shows including The X Games.

Clinkscales's passion for quality journalism has earned him Emmy nominations and Peabody awards, and over 40 credits as an executive producer of films and documentaries.

Derek Ferguson is Chief Operating Officer of Revolt Media & TV.

Prior to his current position at Revolt, Ferguson was the chief growth officer of Combs Enterprises, which he joined in 1998. He has been a trusted advisor to Mr. Combs ever since, serving as CFO and managing all business operations for Mr. Combs and his brands.

Previously Ferguson was vice president of Finance and Operations for BMG Special Products. He began his tenure at BMG Entertainment in 1996 as vice president of Worldwide Finance. He had previously served as the chief operating officer of Urban Profile Communications Inc., a startup magazine he co-founded.

Cheryl Joyner is chairman of PARA Music Group, which sources music from 144 countries.

Prior roles include vice president of Alliances for Live Nation, the world's largest live entertainment company; director of Marketing and Creative Services for Jazz at Lincoln Center; and leading marketing strategy and execution for industry giants Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, and MCA.

Joyner has created and executed some of the industry's most successful marketing campaigns with some of the biggest acts in music, including Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, India.Arie, Branford Marsalis, David Byrne, and Stevie Wonder.

Larry McRae is vice chairman and corporate development officer at Corning, where he implements strategies related to Corning's business portfolio, partner agreements, and mergers and acquisitions. Since joining Corning in 1985, McRae has held a broad range of leadership positions in finance, sales, marketing, and general management. Prior to his current role, he was executive vice president, Strategy and Corporate Development. McRae has served on Corning's management committee since 2002 and was named vice chairman in 2015. He is on the board of directors for Hemlock Semiconductor Group and Samsung Corning Advanced Glass, LLC.

Greg White is chief financial officer, treasurer, and executive vice president at Farmington Bank and First Connecticut Bancorp.

White also serves as president and CEO at Learn Charter School Network, where he oversees a network of 10 high performing pre-K through 8th grade charter schools serving 4,400 students.

He is on the board of directors at Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and the Farmington Bank Foundation. White was previously employed as CFO of Rockville Financial, vice president of Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, and senior vice president of Mechanics Savings Bank.