The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges in early October against a Hampton-based managing partner of The BFM Fund and a limited liability company for allegedly breaching their fiduciary duties and misleading investors.
Himalaya Rao-Potlapally of Hampton is a managing partner of Portland, Oregon-based BFM Fund, a seed-stage private venture capital fund focused on founders who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. It was founded in September 2020 as the Black Founders Matter Fund I.
“Traditional venture capital … [is] a pretty small, closed system,” Rao-Potlapally told Virginia Business in May. “It’s really difficult for different types of founders to be able to access capital when there’s not a broader understanding of different lived experiences that then shape how different people articulate problems, think about solutions, all of that.”
Rao-Potlapally is the sole member and manager of LDP Partners, an unregistered investment adviser organized in May 2021 in Oregon but with its primary place of business in Hampton. Since July 2022, LDP Partners has managed one client, BFM Fund I, according to the SEC.
The SEC’s Oct. 7 order alleged that LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally willfully violated anti-fraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. It issued cease-and-desist orders and censures to LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally and ordered Rao-Potlapally to pay a $10,000 civil penalty. The company and Rao-Potlapally agreed to the cease-and-desist orders and sanctions without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.
As of August, the BFM Fund had sold about $4.6 million worth of securities to 53 investors in multiple states, according to the SEC order.
The BFM Fund is one of seven venture capital fund managers that the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. is partnering with to invest $100 million in 100 Virginia-based startups. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the partnership, Virginia Invests, in May.
In its order, the SEC alleged LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally breached their fiduciary duties to the BFM Fund and misled the fund’s investors in three ways:
First, in March 2023, according to the SEC order, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally, without notifying all BFM Fund investors, allegedly transferred $600,000 in cash out of the BFM Fund bank account to three different non-BFM bank accounts, including a personal checking account Rao-Potlapally shared with her spouse.
The investment adviser and Rao-Potlapally initiated the transfers after telling the BFM Fund’s advisory committee about concerns that the BFM Fund’s bank account would not be fully protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to the SEC order. In April 2023, a representative from the bank told LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally that the funds could be returned to the BFM bank account and be fully protected by FDIC insurance, according to the SEC. In August and September 2023, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally returned the money, according to the SEC order.
Second, the SEC alleged that in July 2023, LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally misled BFM Fund investors by providing a financial statement that misrepresented the $600,000 as still in the fund’s control. In November 2023, they distributed a financial statement disclosing the March 2023 transfers.
Third, the SEC alleged, LDP Partners took approximately $55,000 total in improper advance management fees from the BFM Fund in February 2023 and September 2023.
LDP Partners and Rao-Potlapally received approval from BFM Fund advisory committee members to take the fees in advance rather than on a monthly basis, but the fund’s controlling documents did not allow that and the advisory committee wasn’t authorized to allow advance fees, the SEC stated in its order.
Virginia’s first Black governor says it’s past time for the state’s historically Black colleges and universities to receive their fair share of the pie.
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a Virginia Union University alumnus, jokes that he has been advocating for increased state funding for Virginia HBCUs “for about a hundred years.”
The Biden administration gave a push in that direction last September in letters to 16 Southern governors — including Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin — calling on them to correct what it calls decadeslong underfunding of 16 land-grant HBCUs in their states. According to the White House, states underfunded these schools by $13 billion from 1987 to 2020.
The commonwealth has two land-grant schools — Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Virginia State University in Ettrick, an HBCU founded in 1882. Federal officials estimate that VSU is owed more than $277 million in state funding.
Land-grant schools were established by the 1862 Morrill Act, under which the federal government provided money to create 57 public colleges for agriculture and engineering. States generally provide required dollar-to-dollar matches for these institutions. During the days of racial segregation in the South, Black students were unable to attend colleges established by the 1862 act, so a separate Morrill Act system was set up in 1890.
Youngkin’s administration has denied that the commonwealth has underfunded VSU compared with Virginia Tech, and expressed skepticism over how federal officials came up with the numbers.
Wilder, a Democrat, says he’s written to Youngkin on the subject. “The underfunding has been documented at the federal level. I say to the governor, ‘Start putting money in the budget for HCBUs — all of them.’ This has been ignored too long by too many.”
William R. Harvey, who retired in 2022 after 44 years as president of Hampton University, suggests that HBCUs seek state funding for specific projects, like HU’s Proton Therapy Institute, which treats cancer patients. Photo by Mark Rhodes
The 93-year-old Wilder, the nation’s first Black governor since the Reconstruction era and later Richmond’s first popularly elected mayor, is now a distinguished professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs named for him. Last September, the school’s annual Wilder Symposium addressed the topic of HBCU funding head-on under the title, “HBCUs and the Absence of Support.”
Under Youngkin’s proposed 2024-26 state budget, released in December 2023, VSU’s operating funding would go up about 9.2% — from $232 million for fiscal 2024 to $250 million proposed in 2025. The Democratic-controlled state legislature will get a crack at the budget to make amendments (likely in a special session this spring) before submitting it to the governor to sign.
There are multiple ways of advocating for more funding, Wilder says. In 2006, a group of alumni and supporters of Maryland’s HBCUs filed a federal lawsuit accusing the state government of providing inequitable resources to its four historically Black schools. In 2021, Maryland reached a $577 million settlement to end the lawsuit.
Wilder says he’s not advocating that Virginia HBCU supporters follow Maryland’s example, but he notes that both chambers of the General Assembly have significant Black leadership, including the state’s first Black speaker of the House of Delegates, Del. Don Scott.
“I don’t think a lawsuit is necessary,” Wilder says. But if HBCUs are not better funded, “we’ll say that your projects likewise will not be funded. There will be no pie for you if there’s no pie for me. … Power concedes nothing without demand. Now that we people of color can do something, we need to do it.”
Economic drivers
Virginia State University President Makola Abdullah, who serves on President Joe Biden’s HBCUs advisory board and is board chair of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, expresses hope that the General Assembly recognizes the value of investing in HBCUs and will be “receptive” to funding increases. “It’s exciting that we’ve reached the point where this conversation is happening” in Virginia, he says.
VSU ranks No. 26 in U.S. News and World Report’s list of Best Overall HBCUs for 2023, and its enrollment grew by 8% for fall 2022 and another 11% in fall 2023, surpassing 5,000 students. In 2021, Virginia State got a major boost in the form of a record-setting $30 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. She also donated $40 million to Norfolk State University, part of a series of donations to HBCUs and other traditionally underfunded institutions.
Major donations are important, but consistent public funding would translate into more scholarships, increased financial aid and updated technology and equipment, VSU’s president says. More than that, increased resources would mean that “the entire community would be uplifted,” Abdullah says. “VSU is a premier economic driver in Petersburg.”
Land-grant schools such as VSU “invest so much back into rural America,” says U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and in December 2023 launched her bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Speaking at the 1890 Land Grant Universities Recognition event co-hosted last September in Washington, D.C., by the nonprofit 1890 Universities Foundation, she told the audience that “back home in Virginia, I have heard from our farmers and our institutions of higher education about the critical nexus between research and the success of Virginia’s No. 1 private industry — agriculture.”
In the past three decades, “more than $275 million should have been available for Virginia State University, had it received state funding per student equal to that of Virginia Tech,” according to Spanberger. “This is unacceptable; those investments could have supported more infrastructure, more student services, and the ability to compete for research grants to better serve Virginia’s students. We need to do better.”
Acknowledging disparity
Although the Biden administration’s letter was specifically aimed at land-grant schools, “it comes at a time when we’re trying to get Virginia to do more for all Black schools,” says James W. Dyke Jr., senior advisor for McGuireWoods Consulting in Tysons.
“This has been going on a long time. Black schools have always received less funding. It’s built up over the years. I think everybody acknowledges the disparity,” says Howard University alumnus Dyke, who was Virginia’s education secretary under Wilder and has worked in recent years on increased funding for HBCUs.
Now is an especially important time to allocate more money to HBCUs, Dyke says. While many institutions around the country are struggling to attract students, enrollment at HBCUs is on the rise, increasing 57% by 2022, according to a National Center for Education Statistics report last spring.
And after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action at most colleges and universities last June, Dyke says, “I think there will be more demand.”
He’s far from alone in that assessment. According to a July 2023 report by Inside Higher Ed, HBCU leaders are expecting more applications. While more interest is generally welcome, administrators at HBCUs nationwide expressed concern that they don’t have the resources and infrastructure to accept more students.
Currently, predominantly Black universities produce 20% of Black college graduates in the country but face significant underfunding compared with predominately white institutions, according to the Wilder Symposium, which billed it as “a crisis that impacts financial support for students, technology resources, and building infrastructure.”
It’s in the best interest of businesses and communities to better support all HBCUs, Wilder says. “Businesses are looking for leadership to come from all of their schools in Virginia. They need a [workforce] pipeline. We produce the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers.”
Like other higher ed institutions, HBCUs are not a monolith. Some, like NSU and VSU, are public universities that receive federal, state and private funding, while others are private universities that rely on tuition, donations and endowments. In Virginia, Hampton University, Virginia Union University and Virginia University of Lynchburg are the state’s private HBCUs.
In 2022, Virginia Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares, a Republican who is rumored to be eyeing a 2025 gubernatorial run, wrote that the state’s laws and constitution allow some public funding of private HBCUs — through the Tuition Assistance Grant program for individual students and with loans to universities through the Virginia College Building Authority.
“This is a significant moment in time for HBCUs,” Virginia Union University President Hakim J. Lucas said when Miyares made that determination.
William R. Harvey, who retired in 2022 after 44 years as president of Hampton University, knows about the effort it takes to attract donations and has advice for other private HBCUs.
When Harvey became HU’s president almost half a century ago, the university’s “finances were in bad shape. They had not balanced the budget. Physical buildings had decayed.” The school’s endowment was $29 million.
Harvey and his team went to work, and “people responded.” At his retirement, Hampton’s endowment contained more than $400 million, a 1,279% increase. MacKenzie Scott also made a $30 million donation to the school in 2020, its largest donation. But that endowment increase also reflects support from nonbillionaire donors.
People responded, Harvey says, because “we asked them to fund specific projects. We didn’t ask for $50 million, we asked for the proton center.” That’s the $225 million Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute (HUPTI), which employs proton treatments on a variety of cancers. The facility opened in 2010, funded by private donors and regional lenders, as well as some public support from the state and federal governments.
Harvey views the institute as a “classic example” of how Hampton and other HBCUs are helping their communities. “We are curing cancer. Cancer is the No. 1 killer in Virginia. We are easing human misery and saving lives.”
Virginia HBCUs at a glance
Virginia has five historically Black colleges and universities, spread across Hampton Roads and Central Virginia. Some of the oldest in the nation, these institutions are a mix of public and privately run schools.
Hampton University
Located in Hampton, the private, not-for-profit university is on 314 acres and has 3,649 students, 3,255 of them undergraduates.1 It was founded in 1868 as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. In July 2022, Hampton welcomed its new president, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams; he succeeds William R. Harvey, who had served as the university’s president since 1978.
Norfolk State University
The four-year public school near downtown Norfolk was founded in 1935. It has a 134-acre campus and has 6,045 students. NSU’s December 2021 commencement speech was delivered by music superstar and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, who also hosted his Elephant in the Room business forum at NSU that year. NSU unveiled its 6,000-square-foot Micron-NSU Nanofabrication Cleanroom in October 2021.
Virginia State University
Virginia State University was founded in 1882 as one of Virginia’s two public land-grant institutions (the other is Virginia Tech). Located in Chesterfield County’s Ettrick area near Petersburg, its 231-acre campus overlooks the Appomattox River. VSU has 5,190 students, 4,829 of them undergraduates.
Virginia Union University
The private university was founded in 1865. Hartshorn Memorial College, a women’s college established in Richmond in 1883, became part of VUU in 1932. Storer College, a Black Baptist college in West Virginia that closed in 1955, merged its endowment with VUU. The university has 1,704 students, 1,227 of them undergraduates.1
Virginia University of Lynchburg
Virginia University of Lynchburg traces its origins to the 1886 founding of the Lynchburg Baptist Seminary. Renamed over the years, VUL was incorporated as Virginia University of Lynchburg in 1996. The private not-for-profit school has 837 students, 479 of them undergraduates.2
This February, during Black History Month, Virginia Business is pleased to honor 17 distinguished leaders from across the commonwealth in our second annual Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards. This year’s cohort of honorees represent industries ranging from advertising, architecture, defense contracting, finance and health care to higher education and nonprofits.
Our editors chose this year’s winners from a pool of 60 nominated executives submitted by our readers and last year’s honorees. Nominees were scored on factors including overall career achievement, community impact and mentorship. Additionally, we have named Salamander Resorts CEO Sheila Johnson to our Virginia Black Business Leaders Hall of Fame, celebrating the first Black woman billionaire’s long, successful career and leadership in media, sports and hospitality. Check out her interview here.
With each of these 10 men and seven women, you’ll read about how they achieved success and what they’re doing to pass their wisdom on to younger generations. One common thread among our winning leaders is that they care a great deal about people — whether it’s employees, customers, family, students or mentees — and often put them ahead of the bottom line.
Acknowledging the history of their forebears, including family members who struggled amid the Jim Crow South and parents who immigrated to the United States, this group of executives is looking forward while remembering where they came from.
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Virginia Black Business Leaders Awards!
Abdullah
MAKOLA ABDULLAH
PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY, ETTRICK
Abdullah set his sights on a career in education because of his mother, who was a psychologist and adjunct professor, and an aunt who was a teacher. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever to help people become the best version of themselves,” he says.
Since arriving at VSU in 2016, that could be Abdullah’s job description. He admits that given social media and technology, students today are different than in his day. The solution, he says, is to work harder to keep their attention.
A graduate of Howard University and Northwestern University, Abdullah is part of President Joe Biden’s HBCU advisory board and chairs the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities board. He says that having a good support system is key — including the “best wife in the world,” Ahkinyala Cobb-Abdullah, a dean at Virginia Union University.
Ashton
KENDRICK ASHTON
CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, THE ST. JAMES GROUP, RESTON
Ashton is the first to tell you he loves to work, taking energy and satisfaction from what he does. “What appeals to me is the opportunity The St. James creates for people of all ages to increase their abilities and perform better, while creating a community that ranges from 3-year-olds to 90-year-olds.”
He and his friend and business partner, Craig Dixon, opened St. James’ namesake sports, wellness and entertainment complex in Springfield in 2018.
After earning a law degree and MBA at the University of Chicago, he was a founding member and managing director of Perella Weinberg Partners, a financial services firm. Ashton is also a board member of Canadian cannabinoid company The Cronos Group and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Bibbs
JIM BIBBS
CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, LIFENET HEALTH, VIRGINIA BEACH
Bibbs has had a storied career in human resources, with more than 20 years of leadership experience at the Port of Virginia and North Carolina-based health care company Quintiles, now part of IQVIA. In 2020, he joined LifeNet, the 40-year-old not-for-profit organization that helps match patients with organ, tissue and cell transplants.
“I’m at a great point in my career, to work for an organization that does such great things for humanity,” Bibbs says. “The people we serve are going from one difficult moment to a better one, whether it’s receiving regenerative tissue or an organ transplant. It’s a very good feeling to be a part of something that’s bigger than me.”
Bibbs previously served as chair for the Urban League of Hampton Roads and the Hampton Roads Chamber.
Burton
DEBORAH BURTON
VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY BASED PROGRAMS, UMFS, NEWPORT NEWS
A former social worker who joined United Methodist Family Services of Virginia in 1995, Burton now oversees UMFS’ community-based programs serving children in foster care and families across the state.
A Norfolk State University alum, Burton knew she wanted to be in a helping field. She first did residential care, then moved to the state Department of Social Services, where she worked with children in foster care. At UMFS, she continues that work. “It’s an honor to be out in the community and be an advocate for those without voices.”
Burton, who loves being a mother, has come to two conclusions, the first being that her gifts and talents aren’t for her but to influence those coming up behind her. She’s also a strong advocate of self-care, taking time off to rest and recharge.
Dixon
CRAIG DIXON
CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, THE ST. JAMES GROUP, RESTON
In the 2010s, Dixon and his business partner and friend, Kendrick Ashton (see entry, Page 22), identified an access problem for adults and children in the Washington, D.C., area who wanted to be active — facilities for different sports and activities were scattered all over the region. In 2018, they opened The St. James, a 450,000-square-foot sports, wellness and entertainment complex, in Springfield, later adding smaller, more streamlined versions in Reston and Bethesda, Maryland.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Dixon grew up in a family focused on entrepreneurship and education. Dixon earned bachelor’s and law degrees from William & Mary, where he and Ashton met as roommates. He’s also a member of Vivid Seats’ board of directors and was senior counsel for Smithfield Foods.
Dixon says he’s learned the importance of relationships in business and to keep going regardless of challenges.
Foster
MOSES FOSTER JR.
PRESIDENT AND CEO, WEST CARY GROUP, RICHMOND
In 2007, Foster founded West Cary Group, a marketing, communications and advertising agency, fulfilling a lifelong dream to run and grow a company. Under Foster’s direction, the firm serves big-name clients like New York Life, Richmond International Airport and Foster’s former employer, Capital One.
Foster also serves on the MCV Foundation’s board and is director emeritus for NextUp RVA, a nonprofit that recruits business leaders to mentor underserved Richmond Public Schools students. West Cary Group has won numerous awards for its creative work and has been recognized as a top workplace.
“One of my proudest moments was when an employee shared with me that she was buying her first house. This dream I had of running a company had matured to the point it allowed someone to buy a home,” Foster says.
Gandy has handled money her entire career, starting with her first job as a part-time bank teller as an undergrad at the University of North Carolina. Today, she’s an executive at Chevy Chase Trust, a top-ranked investment firm with over $35 billion in assets under management.
Gandy is also chairman of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the first Black woman to lead the organization’s board in its 100-year history.
“My parents came up in an era where career options for African Americans were limited, and my father, a teacher, said, ‘You now have opportunities not open to me.’ That’s one of the reasons banking appealed to me,” Gandy says. “I often hear, ‘There aren’t enough of us in the wealth management field.’ People think that you have to come from a wealthy family or have connections to be successful, and that’s not the case.”
Grinnage
KYM GRINNAGE
REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, GRAY TELEVISION; GENERAL MANAGER, WWBT NBC12, RICHMOND
Grinnage has been a news junkie since childhood, tuning into the nightly news with his grandmother. Today, as general manager of Richmond’s longtime NBC affiliate, he’s leading the people who report the news every day — although it was a sacrifice at first.
“I took a pay cut to come from New York and start all over in Richmond as a junior account executive, but getting hired at NBC12 33 years ago was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he says.
Also, Grinnage adds, “It’s been good for the community to see a Black man leading a major TV station. Not only is it aspirational for a lot of people, but people feel their voice can be heard and projected back into the community.”
Grinnage is chair-elect of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters and was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame in 2020.
Hines
LINDA HINES
VIRGINIA MEDICAID MARKET PRESIDENT, HUMANA, MIDLOTHIAN
Hines saw firsthand growing up in rural Virginia the challenges her community had accessing health care, and she made it her life’s purpose to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations in the commonwealth.
“People had to drive 50, 60 miles to get care. No one was there to help them navigate the health care system or show them how to lead a healthy life,” recalls Hines.
Having earned two nursing degrees and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Hines received VCU’s top nursing achievement award in 2022 in recognition of her 25-year career in managed care leadership. In October 2023, she joined Humana as the Virginia Medicaid regional president, after serving in a similar role for Sentara Health.
Hines is also a board member for the nonprofit Rx Partnership and the VCU School of Business Foundation.
Hussein
MOHAMED HUSSEIN
CEO, PGLS, ARLINGTON COUNTY
Growing up in Northern Virginia with parents who spoke Somali and Arabic, Hussein was exposed to multiple languages from birth. Six years studying Arabic in Saudi Arabia helped him further polish his linguistic skills. So, in 2013, when he was 24, Hussein started Piedmont Global Language Solutions (PGLS), offering translation, interpretation and language training services. By 2021, the company’s revenue grew to $30 million, and it now has 120 full-time employees and more than 10,000 contract workers.
PGLS wasn’t even Hussein’s first entrepreneurial endeavor, a fact he attributes to his love of building and taking chances. “Building is easy; scaling is harder,” he says. “Taking something from a handful of employees to a several hundred-person operation is the challenge.”
In addition to running PGLS, Hussein works with organizations to connect with youths and other entrepreneurs.
Isom
PAMELA ISOM
CEO AND FOUNDER, ISADVICE & CONSULTING, DUMFRIES
When President Joe Biden issued an executive order last October aimed at ensuring America’s leadership in harnessing the potential — and mitigating the risks — of artificial intelligence, Isom’s company was already there, guiding the safer use of ethical AI.
Founded in January 2023, IsAdvice & Consulting is the result of Isom’s decades in the private and public sector, including serving as executive director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. “I saw opportunities to blend AI and cybersecurity to solve some challenges, especially around equity, opportunity and sustainability,” she says. “I’m passionate about equity.”
Among her influences, Isom cites Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and her mother, who taught her to embrace fear and move forward. Support and encouragement for her vision of entrepreneurship came from her husband and grown daughter.
Myers
J.D. MYERS II
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/EAST REGION MANAGER, COX COMMUNICATIONS, CHESAPEAKE
A military brat and Army veteran, Myers says that the communications industry is the hottest business to be in as the federal government extends broadband to last miles, so no one is left technologically behind. After joining Cox in 2006, he’s now in charge of the telecommunications and cable provider’s East Coast operations.
Myers traces his personal communication style to MLK and JFK, citing their “phenomenal ability to energize, galvanize and share a vision,” but when it comes to how he looks at the world, it’s his parents he thanks. He believes that the best leaders are also teachers.
“It’s not enough to have a seat at the table, you also have to know how to ‘eat’ — to bring value, to ensure your voice is heard and come prepared to make an impression to maintain your seat.”
Noel
TYRONE NOEL
HAMPTON ROADS MARKET PRESIDENT, BANK OF AMERICA; GREATER VIRGINIA MARKET EXECUTIVE, MERRILL LYNCH WEALTH MANAGEMENT, WILLIAMSBURG
In September 2023, Noel took over the Hampton Roads territory for Bank of America, combining the role with his work as Merrill Lynch’s market executive. He has been involved with financial services for more than 20 years.
“My first job in finance helped a lot of people get their first homes, then my pursuit as a financial adviser let me help them stay in their homes,” says Noel. “Leading a team of 106 advisers across the area, I love knowing that we are helping put their kids through college or pass their wealth to their children.”
Noel demonstrates a strong commitment to service both in and outside the workplace, serving as a mentor through the Merrill Women’s Exchange and Black professionals’ group, while engaging in nonprofit work throughout the state, including the Boys & Girls Clubs and various food banks.
Pinnock
BURT PINNOCK
PRINCIPAL AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, BASKERVILL, RICHMOND
Pinnock quips that he’s had an interesting career arc: first as an intern at Baskervill, then starting his own architecture firm, and finally returning as board chair at Baskervill, which was founded in 1897.
Pinnock is keenly aware that his firm wasn’t always on the right side of history, having built the former monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. “Selecting me as chairman of its board says a lot about who we are as a company and who we want to be, compared to where we started,” he says.
The Virginia Tech grad is also practice leader of the company’s civic and cultural division. Pinnock continues his commitment to the Storefront for Community Design, a Richmond nonprofit he founded to engage the next generation of designers.
Pollock-Berry
DEBBIE POLLOCK-BERRY
CHIEF PEOPLE AND CULTURE OFFICER, PLEZi NUTRITION, ASHBURN
Although she’s held her position for less than a year, Pollock-Berry is all-in with PLEZi Nutrition, and not just because former first lady Michelle Obama is a co-founder and strategic partner of the startup. It was the company’s mission focused on the health and well-being of children that attracted her.
Pollock-Berry credits her leadership style to her former boss at AOL, Dave Harmon, but insists it’s her co-workers and employees who most influence her now. Rather than treat people as she’d want to be treated — her mother’s advice — she prefers to take the time to get to know people to find out how they want to be treated “because everyone is different.”
Her own advice to employees is to work hard and play hard. “My goal is to be profitable and to create a culture where everyone wants to work because they believe in the mission.”
Purvis
SHAWN PURVIS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, QINETIQ US, McLEAN
A 27-year defense contracting industry veteran, Purvis has held leadership roles at Northrop Grumman, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Lockheed Martin. Now, she leads the U.S. operations of British aerospace company QinetiQ, a job she started in 2022.
Heading up what she considers a disruptor company, Purvis likes to create an organizational mindset that encourages employees “to see beauty in chaos,” and she values diversity and inclusivity over hierarchy.
“I love challenging the status quo, to learn from existing innovations and improve on them to solve hard problems for our customers,” says Purvis, who earned a master’s degree in information systems from George Mason University.
In 2022, she was honored with the distinguished alumni award by GMU’s College of Engineering and Computing. She is a former member of GMU’s board of visitors.
Swann
ALEXIS SWANN
PRESIDENT – PENINSULA AND WILLIAMSBURG, TOWNEBANK, NEWPORT NEWS
After a long and successful career at Wells Fargo, and years of being wooed, Swann joined TowneBank as president for the bank’s Williamsburg and Peninsula regional operations in 2019.
At TowneBank, Swann wears her “numbers and people hats” to help her team develop and grow, engage with the community for their banking needs and use her business acumen to grow the bank’s market share. “Ultimately, we help people to achieve their dreams by aligning their finances.”
Outside of work, the William & Mary MBA graduate volunteers with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and Habitat for Humanity. She also advocates for financial literacy in various community settings.
Donald Alexander Jr. considered multiple schools, as well as the Air Force, before he landed at Norfolk State University in 2019.
The Chesapeake native grew up with strong ties to the university, one of Virginia’s two public historically Black colleges and universities. As an elementary schooler, Alexander went to summer camp on Norfolk State’s campus, and several aunts, uncles and cousins attended the school. His uncle, Melvin T. Stith Sr., a former dean at Florida State University, received his bachelor’s degree from Norfolk State and served as its interim president from 2017 to 2019.
After high school, Alexander attended a summer program offered by Norfolk Stateto help him prepare for the academic experience, and fell in love with the college. He also found comfort in building connections with peers who had similar backgrounds and experiences.
“We were in a time where racial profiling was active again. It was a big thing when I was going into college, and I feel like a lot of African Americans, when they choose HBCUs, they choose them because of the comfortability that they will have,” says Alexander, now a 22-year-old senior majoring in computer science. The shared experience of an HBCU, he says, “allows you to have more people to lean on, to have more people to get close with.”
Virginia State University Provost Donald Palm says branding, social media and a state-sponsored program offering free tuition for eligible local students have helped fuel record enrollment. Palm photo by Shandell Taylor;
At a time when overall undergraduate enrollment is declining nationally, Alexander is among a wave of Black students who are choosing HBCUs over predominantly white colleges and universities.
According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, undergraduate enrollment in colleges and universities declined 4.2% from 2020 to 2022. Meanwhile, undergraduate enrollment at HBCUs grew 2.5% in fall 2022, reversing a 1.7% decline from the previous year. That growth was driven by a 6.6% increase in freshmen enrolling at HBCUs, the NSCRC noted.
Virginia’s 15 four-year public universities, including HBCUs Norfolk State and Virginia State University, are slightly ahead of national trends. Undergraduate enrollment declined 2% between fall 2020 and fall 2022, according to an analysis of data from the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia. Enrollment at Virginia private colleges that report data to SCHEV fell 4% during the same period.
However, during the same two-year period, VSU and NSU saw huge undergraduate enrollment boosts — increases of 18% and 7% — far outstripping their larger, predominantly white public counterparts. Only William & Mary came close to matching those increases, with a 9% enrollment boost from 2020 to 2022. By comparison, Longwood and Radford universities saw undergraduate enrollment decreases of 20% and 18%, respectively, during that same time.
Nationally, combined total enrollment at HBCUs grew 25% from 1980 to 2015, rising from 234,000 to 293,000. But that growth wasn’t as rapid as it was for all colleges and universities combined, which saw enrollment nearly double during the same time period, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. From 1976 to 2014, the percentage of Black college students attending HBCUs fell from 18% to 8%, a trend that has been reversing more recently.
Fall 2022 enrollment data from two of Virginia’s three private HBCUs, Hampton and Virginia Union universities, is incomplete, and neither granted Virginia Business’ requests for interviews. Virginia University of Lynchburg, another Virginia HBCU, does not report data to SCHEV because it does not receive state funding. VUL did not respond to interview requests from Virginia Business.
Social justice, strategic planning
Administrators at VSU and NSU say enrollment increases at their universities are a result of numerous factors and follows a trend seen nationally among the 101 HBCUs located across 19 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Juan Alexander, associate vice president for enrollment management at NSU, and VSU Provost Donald Palm, who is also senior vice president of academic and student success and engagement, cite the Black Lives Matter movement for helping to raise the visibility of HBCUs. Social justice rallies that swept the country in 2020 fueled greater corporate awareness for diversity, equity and inclusion and sparked philanthropic giving to HBCUs, including record gifts from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Scott’s 2021 donations of $30 million to VSU in 2020 and $40 million to NSU represented the largest gifts each university has ever received. She also gave a record $30 million to Hampton University in 2020.
While those donations also led to media exposure and are helping fund scholarships and other initiatives, including research laboratories, faculty and staff conferences and training, and venture capital funds at NSU, they also coincided with efforts to enhance admissions, says Alexander, who also credits the university’s marketing strategies and use of alumni in boosting enrollment.
NSU Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Juan Alexander says the university is one of only a few HBCUs that use the Common App. Alexander photo by Mark Rhodes
For example, Norfolk State had also been working to streamline and remove barriers to its admissions process. NSU’s Alexander (no relation to NSU senior Donald Alexander) says that around December 2021 the university joined the Common App, an undergraduate application that allows students to apply to as many as 1,000 member colleges and universities by using one form. That’s allowed NSU, which has only about five recruiters, to expand its reach to students it might not otherwise reach. Fewer than about a dozen HBCUs currently use the Common App, and about 30% of NSU’s incoming freshmen in fall 2022 applied using it, he says.
In addition, NSU added virtual college tours and virtual appointments, including with financial aid counselors. It also moved to a new customer relations portal that allows the university to keep in touch with students “at every stage” of the enrollment and application process.
“We’re up about 131% from last year in our freshman first-time acceptances … so that’s a good sign,” Alexander says. “It looks like we’re gonna have a pretty hefty freshman class again this coming fall.”
Meanwhile, VSU, located in Chesterfield County’s Ettrick area near Petersburg, broke a 30-year record for the 2022-23 academic year, enrolling more than 1,700 first-time freshmen and transfer students, for an increase of 550 new students over the previous academic year, which also broke enrollment records.
VSU launched a strategic plan in fall 2020. One prong of that plan includes improved marketing and branding efforts. Social media is an important part of that, and has gotten attention, Palm adds. “Our students are so engaged. That’s where are students are — on social media. So we are in the social media game.”
VSU ranked No. 27 among all NCAA Division II schools for overall social media engagement in 2022, according to social media marketing analysis company Rival IQ, but took the No. 1 spot on Twitter, with 19,043 engagements, and No. 3 on Facebook, with 151,362 engagements.
Another program helping boost enrollment is the state-sponsored Virginia College Affordability Network. Launched in 2021 to support the state’s two public HBCUs, it provides free tuition for Pell Grant-eligible first-year students who live within 40 miles of VSU or within 45 miles of NSU. About 600 VSU students have taken advantage of the program and about 300 students have benefited from it at NSU.
The program has helped encourage some students who may have looked farther from home for their higher education to stay local, Palm says.
“We’re reaching those students who — many students want to go elsewhere — they want to leave home to go to college,” Palm says.
At NSU, Donald Alexander credits the personal attention and family atmosphere he’s found there with helping him push himself, something he’s unsure might have happened if he’d gone to a non-HBCU. He’s been a member of NSU’s student government, including its chief justice during the 2021 to 2022 academic year, and after the Black Lives Matter protests he served as an SGA liaison to handle student relations with campus police.
He likes that the university hosts “Soul Food Thursday,” offering Southern comfort foods like fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread.
“There’s nothing like an HBCU, honestly, and any HBCU student could attest to that,” he says. “The atmosphere there is unmatchable. It’s just something that is going to stick with you for the rest of your life.”
Sarah King contributed to this story.
Virginia HBCUs at a glance
Virginia has five historically Black colleges and universities, spread across Hampton Roads and Central Virginia. Some of the oldest in the nation, these institutions are a mix of public and privately run schools.
Hampton University
Located in Hampton, the private, not-for-profit university is on
314 acres and has 3,317 students, 2,867 of them undergraduates.1 It was founded in 1868 as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. In July 2022, Hampton welcomed its new president, retired U.S. Army Gen. Darrell K. Williams; he succeeds William R. Harvey, who had served as the university’s president since 1978.
Norfolk State University
The four-year public school near downtown Norfolk was founded in 1935. It has a 134-acre campus and has 5,786 students. NSU’s December 2021 commencement speech was delivered by music superstar and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, who also hosted his Elephant in the Room business forum at NSU that year. NSU unveiled its 6,000-square-foot Micron-NSU Nanofabrication Cleanroom in October 2021.
Virginia State University
Virginia State University was founded in 1882 as one of Virginia’s two public land-grant institutions (the other is Virginia Tech). Located in Chesterfield County’s Ettrick area near Petersburg, its 231-acre campus overlooks the Appomattox River. VSU has 4,300 undergraduates and 348 graduate students.
Virginia Union University
The private university was founded in 1865. Hartshorn Memorial College, a women’s college established in Richmond in 1883, became part of VUU in 1932. Storer College, a Black Baptist college in West Virginia that closed in 1955, merged its endowment with VUU. The university has 1,730 students, 1,243 of them undergraduates.1
Virginia University of Lynchburg
Virginia University of Lynchburg traces its origins to the 1886 founding of the Lynchburg Baptist Seminary. Renamed over the
years, VUL was incorporated as Virginia University of Lynchburg
in 1996. The private not-for-profit school has 558 students, 217
of them undergraduates.1
Thompson is partially retired as Thompson Hospitality’s CAO, but he’s stayed busy by starting two nonprofits: Opportunity Scholars, a Winchester-based organization that provides mentorship opportunities to underserved middle and high school students; and The Global Good Fund, which supports young adults from around the world in entrepreneurial endeavors that have social focuses. The Hampden-Sydney College alumnus and University of Virginia master’s of public administration degree-holder also just completed a year as chairman of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s board.
Growing up in eastern Virginia, Thompson recalls that his parents “reminded us they were proud of us. They corrected us when we messed up, but they did it in love. Their love was not tied to performance.”
Beginning in 1992, Thompson joined his younger brother, Thompson Hospitality President Warren Thompson, and sister, Senior Vice President Benita Thompson-Byas, at Thompson Hospitality. “We’ve been very blessed,” he says.
Before taking over the leadership of Metropolitan Business League, a nonprofit association that supports small, women- and minority-owned businesses in Richmond, Miller worked in human services, education and criminal justice and spent 17 years as director of urban programs for Special Olympics Virginia.
Those seemingly diverse jobs shared one commonality: They all gave him the chance to give back.“I’ve always wanted to be in a role with the opportunity to serve,” says Miller, a New Kent County native who earned degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia State University.
Since 2017, Miller has overseen major growth at the MBL, with membership swelling from 150 businesses to more than 900. The league’s operating budget also has grown by 50%, which maximizes its ability to help small businesses, he says. During the pandemic, MBL distributed more than $1 million in critical grants and microloans that helped many local businesses remain afloat.
During summer 2020, racial inequities took center stage in the United States as protesters took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer was captured on video and widely disseminated via social media and news outlets.
Corporate America also responded, primarily through public statements vowing to focus on diversifying their workforces and especially C-suites, which have long been dominated by white men. Amid national grief and outrage, executives seemed open to discussions about race- and gender-related inequities in pay and promotions, as well as the whiteness of corporate boards.
Quite a few companies and other institutions hired diversity, equity and inclusion executives — some of whom were the first and only Black members of their companies’ C-suites — in 2020 and early 2021. According to LinkedIn, hiring of DEI officers increased by 84% during the 12-month period ending Aug. 30, 2020, and by 111% for the same period in 2021.
But nearly three years after Floyd’s killing, progress has stalled at some businesses and educational institutions, sometimes spilling out in public forums.
More than 88% of the 681 Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies surveyed for executive search firm Crist | Kolder Associates’ Volatility Report 2022 continue to be led by white CEOs; the percentage is roughly the same for companies led by men. Additionally, a study released last year by Mogul Inc., a diversity recruitment firm, found that 69% of Fortune 500 board members are male, and 78% of Fortune 500 board members are white.
Meanwhile, DEI officers are averaging a three-year turnover rate, reports LinkedIn, and many companies do not report the demographic makeup of their workforces, making public accountability difficult or impossible to achieve.
“I see more businesses really refraining from speaking on DEI because it is no longer popular or advantageous for them. This, to me, is concerning,” says Narketta Sparkman-Key, associate provost for inclusive strategies and equity initiatives at James Madison University and formerly Old Dominion University’s director of faculty diversity and retention.
A recent CNBC report supports Sparkman- Key’s concerns about the regression of DEI initiatives.
Citing research from Glassdoor, CNBC reported that access to DEI programs nationwide surged to 39% in 2020 and peaked at 43% in 2021. In 2022, however, it dropped to 41%. “Many companies are starting to reorganize and find ways to cut costs, leaving progress toward diversity, equity and inclusion on the back burner,” a CNBC reporter concluded.
Kristen Cavallo, global CEO of MullenLowe Group and CEO of The Martin Agency, has made pay equity and inclusive hiring high priorities. Photo courtesy MullenLowe Group
Putting up walls
DEI efforts can falter for many reasons, including the current challenges with labor shortages and inflation, which makes hiring and retention more difficult.
At other workplaces, politics can interfere.
Virginia Military Institute, which came under scrutiny in 2020 following reports by The Roanoke Times and The Washington Post of racist attacks on Black cadets and alumni, hired its first Black superintendent, retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, that year. In May 2021, Wins in turn hired the institute’s first chief diversity officer, Lt. Col. Jamica N. Love, who was tasked with making VMI more welcoming to women and minorities.
However, a group of conservative, mainly white alumni have advocated for Wins’ firing, with some accusing VMI of adopting critical race theory to change the tradition-bound military academy, a claim Wins has said is “categorically false.”
The backlash — focusing on a politically tilted definition of a relatively narrow academic theory — has taken place nationwide, with conservatives opposing nearly any discussion of racism or slavery in K-12 schools and, in some cases, colleges.
CRT was a key element of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign in 2021, and in his first act as governor, he signed an executive order banning “inherently divisive concepts” from being taught in school, including that a white person is inherently racist as a result of their skin color.
Youngkin also changed the title of the state’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer position, swapping out “equity” for “opportunity.” In November 2022, former Heritage Foundation fellow Martin Brown became the third appointee to the position in less than a year, after the first appointee, Angela Sailor, left because of a family matter. Subsequent hire Rosa Atkins departed quietly last fall and took a job as interim superintendent of a North Carolina school system.
The atmosphere and the job were quite different in 2019, when then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, named Janice Underwood as Virginia’s — and the nation’s — first state Cabinet-level chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
In a 2021 interview with Virginia Business, Underwood recalled that Northam’s administration approached her while Northam was under fire for a blackface photo appearing in his medical yearbook, a discovery made in February 2019. After weathering calls for his resignation, Northam said he wanted to improve diversity among state employees and vendors, a job he handed to Underwood, who said in 2021 that she took the job because she had “a plan to interrupt racial oppression, as opposed to just [being] the window dressing.”
In 2022, she became the federal government’s chief diversity officer, after President Joe Biden created the Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council, convened by the Office of Personnel Management. She joined the Biden administration as director of the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility office, leading efforts to increase diversity and equity within the federal government.
Today, Underwood says that society has always experienced ebbs and flows in its commitment to diversity and inclusion. It can be hard to change the culture of a workplace, she says, especially after only a year or two.
Racial equity commitments take on urgency in the middle of crises — such as the national racial justice protests of 2020 or Northam’s political catastrophe — but, she notes, “then when we get away from a crisis, there’s somewhat of a malaise.”
The business case
Politics and inertia aside, Underwood and many other equity-focused executives say there’s a strong business case for diversity, equity and inclusion.
In 2021, Virginia became the first state to win the top slot in CNBC’s prestigious Top State for Business rankings two years in a row. The state government’s focus on ending inequities was cited as a reason for Virginia’s second consecutive win. The General Assembly passed a bill requiring all state agencies to develop DEI plans, and the Virginia Values Act expanded antidiscrimination laws to include LGBTQ residents, making Virginia the first state in the South to do so.
“We found that businesses wanted to come to Virginia because of our diversity, equity [and] inclusion strategy,” Underwood says. “The major Fortune 500 … [and] Fortune 100 companies that were coming into Virginia were meeting with me, and they were very excited about our diversity strategy. They told me their employees would want to move to Virginia to work and raise a family because of the inclusive nature that Virginia was moving toward.”
At Richmond-based The Martin Agency, one of Kristen Cavallo’s first actions as CEO was to double the number of women on the advertising firm’s executive committee to achieve the gender balance she was seeking. Like the Northam administration and Underwood, Martin was in rough waters when Cavallo was hired in 2017 just weeks after an internal investigation into an allegation of sexual harassment concluded. The agency’s chief creative officer left, although he denied wrongdoing.
Cavallo started making big changes, including promoting Carmina Drummond as chief culture officer. Pay equity became a higher priority, especially increasing pay for women and all people of color, and since 2018, the percentage of people of color at the agency has doubled from 14% to 28%.
“I have been a long-term believer in the benefits of diversity,” Cavallo says. “Research has shown that a diverse leadership team has higher margins, higher revenue, higher employee participation, higher morale. And that, ultimately, as a CEO of a publicly held company, is what I am judged by.”
In November 2022, Cavallo was promoted to global CEO of MullenLowe Group, in which she will lead 13 companies while remaining CEO of Martin.
Cavallo says she draws “a red line” from the agency’s commitment to a diverse leadership team to its business successes, including campaigns for Geico General Insurance Co., Old Navy, UPS and Walmart Inc. Martin won Adweek’s Agency of the Year award twice, in 2020 and 2021, and grew its revenue during the pandemic, at a time when many firms were losing income.
‘Best decision’
Drummond says Cavallo was committed to diversity and an inclusive culture from the beginning — proactively so. “She realized that for a company to be creative, it needed different voices and different lenses. When she came in, she said she wasn’t an incrementalist, and that she was going to make changes and do it fast.”
Cavallo says there is plenty of research that shows adopting the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion can make a business stronger and more profitable.
For instance, global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. released a study in 2019 finding that companies in the top quartiles for gender diversity among its executives were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile. Similarly, McKinsey found that the top 25% of companies with an ethnically and culturally diverse leadership were 36% more likely to report above-average profits than the companies with the least executive diversity.
“The research is so clear and so available,” Cavallo says, “that I’m continually surprised that the majority of CEOs, especially those of publicly held companies, don’t adhere to these practices.”
Sparkman-Key, who worked to increase the number of minority faculty members at ODU, is now part of a similar effort at JMU as associate provost for DEI in the school’s academic affairs division.
“I think there is a need for public action related to DEI — action focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the talent pipeline,” Sparkman-Key says. Specific pathways need to be created for underrepresented populations to work within various businesses, she says, as well as a need for succession planning that is focused on the inclusion and promotion of underrepresented populations.
For its part, JMU — whose student body is 75% white and only 4% Black — recently hired Malika Carter-Hoyt as its inaugural vice president of DEI and chief diversity officer. The university also has created a working group to improve conditions for teaching faculty, particularly focused on making minority faculty feel more accepted and welcomed, which can lead to improved retention. In 2020, JMU’s full-time faculty was 80% white and only 3.6% Black, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.
This fall, Sparkman-Key plans to roll out the “Inclusive JMU” initiative, featuring speakers and interventions to guide the university toward what she calls “inclusion and the welcoming of all voices and experiences in our community.”
As for the business community, Cavallo says The Martin Agency is proof that a company can become more financially successful while also increasing diversity.
“There is a statistical correlation between revenue uplift and investment in diversity, and it’s 100% in the control of the CEO,” says Cavallo. “It’s not only morally correct, it’s the best business decision you can make.”
On the third and final day of Pharrell Williams’ Mighty Dream Forum in Norfolk, the theme was innovation. The first day‘s focus was diversity and equity, while Wednesday was largely dedicated to inspiring entrepreneurs to find and create opportunities.
Panelists throughout the day Thursday encouraged attendees to innovate, seek out resources and do their homework to find opportunities and access.
Astronaut Leland Melvin and Pharrell Williams speak on Thursday at the Mighty Dream Forum in Norfolk. Photo by Mark Rhodes
In a conversation with retired NASA space shuttle astronaut and Lynchburg native Leland D. Melvin, Williams talked about creativity and innovation and Melvin discussed gaining a whole new perspective from going into outer space.
Then, in a panel with Melvin; Chegg Inc. CEO Dan Rosensweig; Megan Holston-Alexander, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz; and Sydney Sykes, a partner with venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, Williams talked about how to make the innovation space more inclusive. The concept that innovation is as much about people as it is about ideas came up over and over. Melvin told a story about growing up in Lynchburg, when his father bought an old bread truck for $500 and repurposed it into a recreational vehicle for the family to use for summer travels. “It taught me creativity, innovation and the ability to transform something to something we need for our family,” he said, citing how his father’s implementation of an idea was an example of innovation.
Rosensweig made a point that innovation isn’t always about creating something new, but it can be about improving something and making it better. Innovation isn’t just about founding something, he stressed. It’s finding leverage where there wasn’t before. When a founder is pitching an idea, he or she has to think about the benefits, instead of the features, he added.
Another panel hosted a conversation between Afdhel Aziz, co-founder and chief purpose
Annie Wu, H&M Group’s global head of inclusion and diversity, speaks at the Mighty Dream Forum in Norfolk. Photo by Mark Rhodes
officer for social impact marketing agency Conspiracy of Love, and Aaron Mitchell, former human resources director for Netflix Animation, about how Mitchell convinced Netflix executives to move 2% of its revenues, or about $100 million, to Black banks. He described sending a proposal to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, and how he was encouraged by the response he got, and then seeing it happen. There was a ripple effect with other major tech companies following suit and at least $2 billion worth of corporate deposits being funneled into Black banks, he said. Mitchell noted that Microsoft had quietly done this 10 years prior and it wasn’t an original idea on his part.
Author Ben Nemtin, who co-created MTV’s 2010 reality TV show “The Buried Life,” spoke in TED Talk style about living with purpose. He encouraged attendees to follow their passions, saying, “You’re not done until you get your yes.”
Annie Wu, H&M Group’s global head of inclusion and diversity, delivered a presentation about how the global clothing retailer employs DEI initiatives. H&M, the world’s second-largest retailer, with 4,700 stores worldwide and 150,000 employees, chose four focus areas: people, business, communities and transparency, and made inclusion a priority above diversity.
In one of the final panels of the day, representatives from the White House’s Economic Opportunity Coalition spoke about actions the Biden administration has taken to help underserved small businesses gain access to capital and resources. One of the key points was about taking advantage of not just available capital, but also seeking guidance and mentorship.
Just as Mighty Dream’s first day was focused around a central theme of diversity and equity, the second day was largely dedicated to inspiring entrepreneurs to find and create business opportunities.
The day kicked off with spoken-word poetry from Teens with a Purpose, a Hampton Roads nonprofit youth development organization. Later in the morning, Williams participated in a panel discussion about financial equity and what big businesses are doing to increase access to capital to marginalized communities. The other panelists were: Jennifer Parker, CEO of Treasury Services for The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.; Jim Reynolds, founder, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets LLC; and Donald Franklin with New York-based United Entertainment Group.
He encouraged big corporations, especially fintech companies, to create programs within their organizations to reach out to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and to educate people on the next steps they need to build their own businesses or to work for a business like theirs.
In another conversation about entrepreneurship during the forum Wednesday, Michael Anders, founder of wealth management firm Iconiq Capital, and Charles Phillips, co-founder and managing partner of Recognize, a technology growth equity firm, discussed how entrepreneurship can happen anywhere, including on university campuses, especially with so people now working remotely.
“We need to get the nucleus in place so people can see other people who look like them building businesses,” Phillips said.
Later, Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ longtime business partner and CEO of SpringHill Co., an entertainment and development brand, spoke with Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective and a member of Williams’ Yellow education foundation, about the importance of building partnerships.
Another panel, “Igniting the Dream,” focused on the importance of mentorship and sponsorship. Panelists included Williams; Ayana Green, a vice president with United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS); Nataki Williams, senior vice president of finance with The Guardian; Danny Robinson, chief creative officer with The Martin Agency; Shelley Stewart III, a senior partner with McKinsey & Co.; and Felecia Hatcher, CEO of Black Ambition. Panelists talked about “sharing the code” for success and creating opportunities for Black and brown people — and others in marginalized communities — to pay it forward. They stressed the importance of networking, as well as surrounding themselves with good people who “will lift you up, not pull you down.”
Williams said some business leaders in Hampton Roads have been examples of what not to do.
“That’s the problem here in the 757,” he said. “There are a couple people … I would say a small group of people who have businesses and sectors that have been controlled and families that have controlled them for decades … and they’re cool with that. But then they want to complain when things don’t work out for marginalized communities. We are called marginalized for a reason. It’s because they don’t want to let us in. But the door has been cracked … and we’re going to have one arm in the door and one leg out. We are holding the door open.”
Grammy winning music superstar Pharrell Williams put on his business hat Tuesday in Norfolk, welcoming attendees to his Mighty Dream forum, which he likened to an event like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “but for marginalized communities.”
The three-day forum kicked off with spoken-word poetry and a mighty boom of drums and crash of cymbals played by the Norfolk State University Spartan Legion marching band. Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective and a member of Williams’ Yellow education foundation, promised a new kind of business conference — “important but pretty fun” — and Williams himself, clad in a Spartan-green double-breasted suit jacket and jeans, threw out a challenge to fellow businesspeople in the Hampton Roads region.
“I know it’s sort of kumbaya-ish, but this shouldn’t be the only forum dedicated to [diversity, equity and inclusion],” said Williams, a Virginia Beach native whose primary residence is in Miami. “Norfolk is the host, but this is about the whole 757.”
Google Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker and Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective and a member of Pharrell Williams’ Yellow education foundation, take the stage at Mighty Dream. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Among the first day’s speakers were Google Inc. Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker, Columbia University neurology professor Dr. Olajide Williams and Todd Triplett, TikTok creative lead for the east region of North America.
Parker, who was greeted with cheers when she said she was a Hampton University alumna, said she considers herself “the chief steward of inclusive culture” at Google, which increased its emphasis on diversity and equity following George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in May 2020. The tech giant has doubled its number of Black employees, increased the number of Black executives and provided more mentoring and funding to Black entrepreneurs over the past two-and-a-half years, she said.
In a conversation about health equity, Dr. Olajide Williams, who co-founded Hip Hop Public Health, a nonprofit initiative to teach people about their health, said that Black representation in the medical, financial and educational fields is crucial to overcoming barriers built by structural racism. “The elephant in the room is racism,” Williams said. “First we have to acknowledge it, and then we have to dismantle it, and that’s a whole different conversation.”
Triplett added that self-education, imagination and hope were also key to achieving change.
Williams said during a news conference Tuesday morning that the name “Mighty Dream” comes from a Langston Hughes poem and that the forum — a sequel to his October 2021 Elephant in the Room event at NSU — was renamed to avoid political associations with elephants, the traditional symbol of the Republican Party.
Pharrell Williams and Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective and a member of Pharrell Williams’ Yellow education foundation, take the stage at Mighty Dream. Photo by Mark Rhodes
He said he wanted to get away from politics, but acknowledged that diversity, equity and inclusion — and providing his home community with more business opportunities — was still impacted by politics.
“Hopefully, we set an example,” Williams said. “The gatekeeping has to stop. It just doesn’t help anybody. We’re all human beings.”
In response to a question about the shutdown of Norfolk nightclubs frequented by young Black people following a spate of gun violence, Williams said, “I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s fair. If [city officials] really cared … [they would say], ‘We’re going to talk to these people and help them and educate them.’ This will work, and this is what the area needs.”
Williams said he plans for Mighty Dream to return next year, but didn’t answer a question about the future of his popular Something in the Water music festival, which debuted in Virginia Beach in 2019 and moved to Washington, D.C., after Williams criticized Virginia Beach as “toxic” following the 2021 police killing of his cousin.
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