CONFERENCE
PARTICIPANTS
| SCHOLAR
PARTICIPANTS |
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| Jonathan
Bean, Professor, Department of History, Southern Illinois
University, received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in
1994.. Dr. Bean’s research focuses on the evolving relationships
between business, society, and government. Professor Bean has published
in many professional journals and is the author of Big Government
and Affirmative Action: The Scandalous History of the Small Business
Administration (2001) and Beyond the Broker State: Federal
Policies Toward Small Business, 1936-1961 (1996), winner of
the Henry Adams Prize for Best Book on the history of the federal
government. He is currently working on a book, Capitalist Consumerism:
The Better Business Bureaus and the Search for Truth in the Marketplace.
,Dr. Bean is Director of Undergraduate Studies for the History Department.
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| Thomas
D. Boston, Professor of Economics School of Economics Ivan
Allen College Georgia Institute of Technology, received the Ph.D.
Degree in Economics from Cornell University. He has served as past
President of the National Economic Association and Senior Economist
to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. He is currently a member
of the Black Enterprise Board of Economists and Editor of The
Review of Black Political Economy. Previously, Dr. Boston has
been a member of the Mayor's Council and the Governor's Joint Commission
on Revenue Structures. Dr. Boston’s research focuses primarily
on the economic status of African Americans and minority business
and community development. Professor Boston has authored or edited
six books and numerous scholarly articles. His three most recent
books are entitled Leading Issues in Black Political Economy
(2002), Affirmative Action and Black Entrepreneurship (1999),
and The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in
the Next Century (1997). He is as a national consultant on
minority business and community development issues. |
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| John
Sibley Butler, Professor of Sociology and Management and
Director of the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship and the
IC_ Institute, University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Butler holds the
Gale Chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business in the Graduate
School of Business and the Darrell K. Royal Regents Professorship
in Ethics and American Society (Sociology) and is the Distinguished
Visiting Professor position at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo,
Japan. His research is in the areas of Organizational Behavior and
Entrepreneurship/New Ventures. Dr. Butler also served on the Economic
Advisory Team of George Bush’s 2000 Presidential Campaign.
His books include Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black
America: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics and (with
Charles C. Moskos). All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and
Racial Integration the Army Professor Butler has published
in many professional journals, His current book projects include
“Immigrant and Minority Entrepreneurship: The Continuous Rebirth
of American Communities” and, “Forgotten Citations:
Studies in Community, Entrepreneurship, and Self-Help Among Black-Americans”
Professor Butler received his undergraduate education from Louisiana
State University in Baton Rouge and his Ph.D. from Northwestern
University. |
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| Tiffany
Gill, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University
of Texas at Austin received her PhD in American History at Rutgers
University in 2003. Her dissertation, “Civic Beauty: Beauty
Culturists and the Politics of African American Female Entrepreneurship,
1900-1965,” is an examination of the social, political, and
economic activism of beauticians in African American communities.
A 2001 recipient of the Newcomen Society Dissertation Fellowship
for excellence in American Business History, Dr. Gill has also been
a fellow at the University of Vermont, the John Hope Franklin Center
for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the Rutgers Center
for Historical Analysis. She is the author of “`I Had My Own
Business… So I Didn’t Have to Worry:’ Beauty Salons,
Beauty Culturists, and the Politics of African American Female Entrepreneurship.”
in Phillip Scranton, ed. Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender,
and Culture in Modern America. New York: Routledge Press, 2001.
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| Samuel
L. Myers, Jr., Economist, is the Roy Wilkins Professor
of Human Relations and Social Justice and directs the Roy Wilkins
Center for Human Relations and Social Justice at the University
of Minnesota. He specializes in the impacts of social policies on
the poor. He pioneered the use of applied econometric techniques
to examine racial disparities in crime, to detect illegal discrimination
in credit markets to assess the impacts of welfare on family stability,
and to evaluate the effectiveness of government transfers in reducing
poverty. Myers has authored and co-authored more than 100 technical
reports, journal articles, book chapters, essays and opinion pieces.
His books include: The Economics of Race and Crime, Transaction
Books, 1988; The Black Underclass: Critical Essays on Race and
Unwantedness, Garland Press, 1994; Civil Rights and Race
Relations in the Post Reagan-Bush Era, 1997, Greenwood Publishers
and The Problem of Racial Economic Inequality: Trends and Prospects,
Faculty of Color in Academe: Bittersweet Success, and Persistent
Disparity: Race & Economic Inequality in the U.S. |
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| Gregory
N. Price, Professor of Economics at North Carolina A&T
State University. His research interests are in labor economics,
Economic growth and development, income distribution, and applied
econometrics. His current and ongoing research examines the roles
of social capital, race, and religiousity on resource accumulation,
and opportunity. During 2000-2002, he was a Program Director for
Economics at the National Science Foundation. His publications have
appeared in journals such as Review of Black Political Economy,
Southern Economic Journal, and the Review of Economic
Development. |
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| Lewis
Randolph, Associate Professor in the Department of Political
Science and the Public Administration Program, Ph.D. in Political
Science (1990) from the Ohio State University. Dr. Randolph's areas
of research specialization are: urban politics, black conservative
theory, race, class and gender, presidential politics, urban development,
black politics, social movements, civil rights and domestic political
economy. He lph has published in various scholarly journals including
the Western Journal of Black Studies, Proteus-Journal
of Ideas, and the Urban Affairs Review. His publications
include a two-book series with Dr. Gayle Tate of Rutgers University-
New Brunswick as co-editor of Made In America: Dimensions of
Black Conservatives in the U.S. (St. Martin's Press, June 2002)
and co-author of Rights for A Season: Race, Class, and Gender
in Richmond, Virginia (UT Press, May 2003). With Dr. Robert
Weems, Dr.Randolph co-authored, "The Ideological Origins of
Richard M. Nixon's 'Black Capitalism' Initiative," Review
of Black Political Economy, and "The National Response
to Richard M. Nixon's Black Capitalism Initiative: The Success of
Domestic Detente" Journal of Black Studies. Also,
Professor Randolph with Dr. Weens are co-authors of the forthcoming
Whatever Happened To Black Capitalism? The Rise and Fall Of
Richard M. Nixon's Plan For Black America. |
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| Jon
Wainwright, National Economic Research Associates, Inc.
Dr. Wainwright holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University
of Texas at Austin. His primary areas of interest are labor economics
and industrial organization. He is a specialist in analyzing the
effects of discrimination on minorities, women, and persons over
40 and has testified in federal court on these issues. He has
conducted economic and statistical studies of discrimination for
law firms, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations and
advises clients on developing or adapting their affirmative-action
policies and procedures in response to recent key U.S. Supreme
Court decisions. Dr. Wainwright joined NERA in 1995 and directs
studies of statistical liability and economic damages in employment
discrimination proceedings, directs research activities relating
to affirmative action litigation and regulatory compliance, and
conducts research relating to antitrust litigation, patent disputes,
and other matters. He has extensive experience collecting, manipulating
and analyzing large and complex statistical databases. A former
research associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of
Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Wainwright
and headed his own economic consulting firm. He is a member of
the American Economic Association and an associate of the American
Bar Association. |
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| Robert
E. Weems, Jr. is Professor of History and Interim Associate
Vice-Chancellor for Equity at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he received his Ph.D. from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has spoken widely on topics
related to African American business history and African American
consumerism. His numerous publications include two books, Black
Business in the Black Metropolis: The Chicago Metropolitan Assurance
Company, 1925-1985 published by Indiana University Press in
1996; and Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism
in the Twentieth Century published by New York University Press
in 1998. Moreover, he is the co-editor, with Arvarh E. Strickland,
of The African American Experience: A Historiographical and
Bibliographical Guide, published in 2001 by Greenwood Publishers.
His current and future research projects include two co-authored
books with political scientist Lewis A. Randolph. The first, The
Historical and Political Origins of Richard M. Nixon's "Black
Capitalism"Initiative, to be published by New York University
Press, will examine U.S. government support of black business during
the years 1927-1974. The second book, Whatever Happened To Black
Capitalism?: The Decline of Richard M. Nixon's Plan for Black America,
will survey government initiatives to assist black business from
the Ford Administration to the present. |
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| PRIVATE
SECTOR AND GOVERNMENT PARTICIPANTS |
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| Sherra
Aguirre, CEO, President, Co-Founder and Sole Owner of Aztec
Facility Services, Inc., a Houston-based company that provides facility
management and support services to corporate, industrial and government
clients in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Washington state. Beyond
its core janitorial and housekeeping services, Aztec specializes
in preventive, facilities and parking lot maintenance, pest control,
construction clean-up and property warehousing, as well as environmental
management, hazardous-waste disposal and logistics support. Clients
include Madigan Army Medical Center, McChord Air Force Base in Seattle,
Phillips Petroleum and UT Southwestern Medical Center. Sherra Aguirre.
who holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Houston and
a Masters in Education from Texas Southern University, however,
had no formal business training when she started the company in
1981. Within nineteen years, Aztec grew from a start-up to nearly
1000 employees in four states. By 2001, Aztec’s current rate
of growth was 35% per year. The company employs more than 1,000
workers and reported $21 million in sales in 2001, 24% better than
the previous year_s $17 million, with projected sales for 2002 expected
to be about $25 million. In 1995, Aztec became the first facility
maintenance company in the US to be registered to ISO 9002, the
internationally recognized quality management system for a service
environment. In 2001 Aguirre was the winner of Houston NAWBO's prestigious
Woman Business Owner of the Year |
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| Gary
L. Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP. graduated from
the University of Texas at Austin with honors in 1973 and in 1976
from the University of Texas Law School. Attorney Bledsoe has spent
his professional career in law working as an Assistant City Attorney
from 1976-79, Assistant Attorney General from 1979 to 1994. Then,
after, he worked in private practice and also as an instructor at
St. Mary's University Law School. In 1993 he was a Fellow at the
University of Texas Law School Center of Public Policy Dispute Resolution.
Attorney Bledsoe opened the First Texas NAACP State Office in 1991.
During his tenure Texas local branches have grown, developed and
collectively become the most respected civil rights organizations
in Texas. He headed efforts to dismantle the Department of Public
Safety's discriminatory promotion system, which led to the first
African American and first woman Texas Rangers. Also he created
the First Texas Corporate Diversity Partnership, an agreement with
companies to increase their business with minorities, promote and
hire minorities and provide scholarships and training for minorities.
A former member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission Texas Advisory
Board, Attorney Bledsoe has received numerous awards, including
the Attorney General of Texas Award for Lawyer of the Year for Prosecutor
Assistance, the Austin Young Lawyer’s Association Lawyer of
the Year and the Arthur B. Dewitty Award for Contributions to Civil
Rights in the Austin Area. |
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| Samuel
A. Carradine, is Contractor Development Consultant for
The Surety Association of America (SAA), focusing on business development
and capacity building, both domestically and internationally and
is responsible for outreach, advocacy, program development and technical
assistance in promoting and implementing SAA’s Model Contractor
Development Program. Also, he developed the SAA/INROADS Summer Intern
Program and the Surety Industry Scholarship Program that identifies
and supports outstanding minority students for careers in surety
underwriting and related fields Formerly, Executive Director of
the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC), Carradine
began his consulting career at Abt Associates in Cambridge, MA,
where he was responsible for research projects in telecommunications
and technology transfer. Subsequently, he consulted on financial
management for Arthur D. Little and was a World Bank consultant
in Tanzania, a Director of Research for the Booker T. Washington
Foundation in DC, was on the White House Reorganization Project
for President Jimmy Carter and an Economic Development Assistant
to Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts. A former Peace Corps Volunteer
in Nigeria, with over 30 years of experience in economic development,
business revitalization and financial and strategic planning, Mr.
Carradine holds a B.A. in Government from Cornell University and
an M.A. from Harvard University in Government and Development Administration.
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| Richard
A. Huebner, Executive Director, Houston Minority Business
Council (HMBC), which promotes the development of minority-owned
businesses. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, with a degree
in business administration, Huebner assumed his position in 1985.
His responsibilities bring him into regular contact with representatives
from over 220 Houston area corporations and more than 950 minority-owned
businesses. Under his direction, HMBC quadrupled its membership
and established programs that have brought national acclaim to the
Council and its members. Huebner also serves on the Community Advisory
Board of Southwest Bank of Texas, the Region VI Houston Advisory
Council of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Corporate
Advisory Board of the Native American Chamber of Commerce, the Board
of the Third Coast Community Development Corporation, the Multi-County
Small Business Finance Corporation and is chair of the Regional
Council Advisory Group of the Business Consortium Fund of the National
Minority Supplier Development Council and was recently appointed
to the Small Business Development Program Advisory Council of the
Port of Houston Authority. Mr. Huebner has been recognized twice
with the Regional Director’s Award of the U.S. Department
of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency and as Advocate
of the Year by the Houston District of the U.S. Small Business Administration. |
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| John
F. Iglehart, Dallas Regional Director of the U.S. Department
of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), since
1994, where he is responsible for the administration of all MBDA
programs in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
The MBDA programs that he oversees are accomplished through competitive
awards that provide management and technical assistance to minority
businesses to assist with start-up, survival and expansion. Prior
to his present position Mr. Iglehart served as Chief of the Advocacy
and Outreach Division for MBDA Headquarters, Regional Director for
the New York Region and Acting Director for the Washington and San
Francisco Regional Offices. From 1979 to 1991 he was Deputy Regional
Director of the Washington Regional Office and served in various
other capacities within the agency from 1972 to 1979. From 1969
to 1972 he was a Manpower Development Specialist with the U.S. Department
of Labor. Mr. Iglehart has received numerous awards for his dedication,
professionalism and untiring efforts in the course of helping to
foster minority business development. A native of Waco, Texas, he
obtained his BA Degree from Arkansas AM&N and his MA Degree
from Prairie View A&M and resides in Dallas, Texas with his
wife and their three children. |
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| Milton
A. Thibodeaux, is the Project Director of the Houston Minority
Business Development Center where he leads a team of organizations
who provide management and technical assistance to minority-owned
businesses. He has been involved in this program since 1985. Milton
was formerly an oil & gas accountant with Monsanto Chemical
Company and Texaco U.S.A. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from
Texas Southern University and an MBA from the University of Houston. |
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| Milton
Wilson, Jr., is District Director for Houston District
of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), a 32-county
district, with responsibilities for: oversight of a total business
loan portfolio in excess of one billion dollars; a minority small
business portfolio comprised of 130 firms in the 8(a) program; administration
of the University of Houston Small Business Development Center and
13 subcenters; and, coordination of three chapters of the Service
Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), a volunteer organization that
provides business counseling. Since he became Director in 1991 the
Houston District has consistently ranked in the top ten in all categories
of the 7(a) Lending Program. Mr. Wilson has been in executive level
positions with private industry and government for the past 30 years,
including the last 26 with SBA, where he held senior positions in
Washington DC as Director, Office of Government and Industry Relations
and Director, Office of Capital Ownership Development. Also, he
was Deputy District Director in Houston for a year prior to his
appointment as District Director. Currently, he is Chair of the
Houston Federal Executive Board. Mr. Wilson holds a Master's Degree
of Business Administration from Atlanta University and a Bachelor
of Business Administration from Texas Southern University. |
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Dinner
Speakers
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| Anthony
W. Robinson, Attorney is President of the Minority Business
Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (MBELDEF), which
was founded and established in 1980 by former Maryland Congressman
Parren J. Mitchell to act as a national advocate and legal representative
for the minority business community. Mr. Robinson is a member of
the Maryland Bar, the United States Supreme Court, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Judicial Court, and the United States
District Court for the District of Maryland. Mr. Robinson's area
of specialization is in civil rights, particularly employment discrimination,
and in minority business legal and advocacy issues. From 1976 through
1986, he served as Special Counsel to United States Congressman
Parren J. Mitchell. He also served as a legal counsel for the United
States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1972 to 1975.
In 1984 Mr. Robinson was appointed the first full-time President
and Chief Executive Officer of MBELDEF. His tenure has included
Advisor to the Constitution and Civil Rights Committee of the U.S.
House of Representatives on the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court
decision in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Company. He received
a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from Morgan State
University and a Juris Doctorate Degree from American University
School of Law. |
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CBBH
Staff
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Hopeton
Hay, CBBH Chair Advisory Committee, is Austin Project Manager
for the Bonding and Technical Assistance Program of The University
of Texas System Office of Facilities Planning and Construction (OFPC),
managed by Grijalva & Allen, PC. He is responsible for managing
technical assistance, training, and outreach for minority and women-owned
businesses in construction who seek work on OFPC projects in Austin
and Galveston. Mr. Hay has 15 years experience working with minority
and women business development programs as Executive Director of
the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce, Project Director
of the Dallas/Fort Worth Minority Business Development Center and
as Chair of the Economic Development Committee of the Texas NAACP.
Also, he hosts “Economic Perspectives,” a weekly radio
talk show, KAZI 88.7 FM, which covers small business, finance, and
economic development issues. His awards include Minority Small Business
Advocate of the Year, Region VI, U.S. SBA and Minority Business
Advocate of the Year from the Austin Minority Business Development
Center. An expert on Texas minority business demographics, he recently
published The Economic Condition of African Americans in the State
of Texas for the Texas NAACP and has a forthcoming report, The State
of Black Businesses in Texas, which will be published by the University
of
Texas Austin CBBH (Center for Black Business History, Entrepreneurship
and Technology). |
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| Lilia
Raquel Rosas, Conference Coordinator Assistant, is a doctoral
candidate in history at The University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation,
"(De)sexing Prostitution: The Race, Politics, and Reform of
Sex Work in Progressive San Antonio, 1890-1918" examines not
only the participation of African American and ethnic Mexican women
in sex work but also the social movements against prostitution in
San Antonio in the Progressive Era. Her research interests overall
include the intersections of African American, Mexican American,
and gender and women's history from a cultural and social perspective.
In 2003, Ms. Rosas received a nomination as an Outstanding Research
Assistant by The University of Texas Graduate Student Assembly and
is an associate editor to Eyes: The University of Texas Undergraduate
Journal in Black History. |
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| Juliet
E. K. Walker, Professor, Department of History, is Founding
Director of the Center for Black Business History, Entrepreneurship
and Technology (CBBH). A University of Chicago PhD, with postdoctoral
work at Harvard University, she is author of The History of
Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship,
which includes a chapter, “The Federal Government and Black
Business: The 1960s to the 1990s.” Her book Free Frank
A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier details entrepreneurial
activities of slave-born Frank (1777-1854). With profits from his
enterprises, first as a slave (processing crude niter to manufacture
saltpeter) and, then, a free black, he purchased 16 family members
from slavery, Active in the Underground Railroad, Free Frank, the
first Black town founder (New Philadelphia, Illinois, 1836), is
Walker’s great great grandfather. Dr. Walker, editor of the
Encyclopedia of African American Business History, is author
of some eighty articles, most recently “White Corporate America:
The New Arbiter of Race?” A Senior Fulbright Fellow (South
Africa), Princeton University Davis International Fellow, with fellowships
from the Harvard DuBois Institute, Rockefeller and NEH, she has
won 13 publication awards. Her work is recognized as a foundation
for Black Business history as a sub-field in African American history.
She is completing a book Oprah Winfrey: An American Entrepreneur
under contract with the Harvard University Business School Press.
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