Sign In
Upcoming Event
Free Newsletter
CHAIRMAN, THE GILJOY GROUP; PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN, URBAN LEAGUE OF HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA BEACH
CHAIRMAN, THE GILJOY GROUP; PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN, URBAN LEAGUE OF HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA BEACH
Virginia Business// August 30, 2023//
As Urban League of Hampton Roads president and chairman, Bland guides an organization focused on enabling African Americans and others in Hampton Roads to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights through its services and programs.
As a James Madison University student, the Harrisonburg native was a standout who ran track, was a charter member of the international honors society for economics and helped establish the Black Student Alliance. After graduation, he entered commercial banking in Chicago and was a vice president at the largest Black-owned bank in the country. In the 1980s, he founded The Giljoy Group, which operated more than 70 Burger King, Pizza Hut and Mrs. Fields restaurants for about 30 years, employing more than 2,000 people. He became the Urban League’s head in 2018 and is a member of the Hampton Roads Business Hall of Fame.
Bland has served on boards ranging from Sentara Health to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia African American Advisory Board. He also was a charter board member of Burger King’s inclusion advisory committee.
