September 2002

George Fraser’s Power Network Explodes

Women and Minority Businesses Hit Home-run

Reginald F. Lewis Foundation Gives $5 Million Gift

Black-Owned Food Company Seals Kellogg Deal

George Fraser’s Power Network Explodes

The 1,250 participants flooded the Power Networking Conference at the Cleveland Convention Center in Ohio. The attendees, mostly African American between the ages of 25 and 50, lined up with cash, checks and credit cards to pay a full registration fee of up to $599 because they were hungry for information to help them grow their businesses and take it to the next level. “I want to meet people who can link me with the right retailers for carrying my new greeting card line,” explained Tonja Delaine, creator of the “Happy Father’s Day, MOM!” product in Youngstown, Ohio.

The three-day event featured 27 intense workshops conducted by several esteemed business professionals and politicians, including author Patricia Russell-McCloud, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ford Motor Company’s Vice President of Procurement Thomas K. Brown, Boston Consulting Group’s James Lowry and conference founder, George C. Fraser—to name a few.

Although there were numerous memorable sessions, such as the opening Town Hall Meeting moderated by Tavis Smiley, the closing gala featuring the new African-American Business Hall of Fame and Museum was the climax. Inductees included Motown founder Berry Gordy, BET founder Robert Johnson, Essence co-founder Clarence O. Smith and media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

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Women and Minority Businesses Hit Home-run
Major League Baseball (MLB), the organization representing the teams and players of baseball’s National and American Leagues, has signed individual agreements with both the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), as part of its Diverse Business Partners Program.

The agreements, the first of their kind with a professional sports league, include membership for the league’s central office and member clubs in local chapters of both NMSDC and WBENC, thus providing MLB with access to information about national and local minority- and women-owned businesses. Also, these businesses can now go to the league’s official Web site (www.mlb.com) for information about certification for NMSDC and WBENC. By becoming certified, women and minority businesses can broaden their local, regional and national product and service offerings with MLB’s central office, its member clubs and other corporations who rely on the two organizations for access to diverse vendors.

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Reginald F. Lewis Foundation Gives $5 Million Gift
The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, the charity organization named for the late CEO of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, pledged $5 million to a black history museum, scheduled to be opened in Baltimore in 2004.

According to his wife and successor, Loida Nicolas, Lewis, a native of Baltimore who died in 1993 at the age of 50, hoped that he would one day provide for a museum of this kind.

The gift, which will be made in five $1 million installments, is the largest ever by the foundation. The 80,000 square-foot structure will be officially named the Reginald F. Lewis Maryland Museum of African- American History and Culture.

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Black-Owned Food Company Seals Kellogg Deal
Baldwin Richardson Foods, an African-American-owned company, signed a five-year contract with Kellogg Company in June to be the exclusive producer of the fruit fillings for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain cereal bars. The deal will bring in an estimated $12.5 to $16. 5 million in revenues a year and will make Baldwin Richardson Foods one of Kellogg’s largest minority suppliers.

The Chicago-based Baldwin Richardson Foods constructed a multi-million dollar plant expansion in Macedon, New York to accommodate a new processing technology that the two companies designed to produce the fruit fillings. The new supplier also added 20 new employees to its previous workforce of 140.

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Apollo Theater Gets Overhaul
Good news for Apollo Theater enthusiasts. The 88-year-old Harlem landmark, located on 125th Street, will undergo an estimated $250 million renovation and expansion over the next several years. Theater managers plan to transform what was once a burlesque hall into a major cultural and performing arts center, with a clothing store, restaurant and recording studio.

In the first phase of renovations, $50 million will be spent for external repairs, including restoration of the marquee with as much of its original material as possible. The theater will be closed from January to August in 2003. The Apollo Theater Foundation is negotiating to lease the neighboring state-owned Victoria Theater, with the goal of taking over the four shops between the two sites and joining them together as one center with a single facade. During internal renovations, the popular Amateur Nights will go on a 35-city tour.

After going bankrupt and shutting down its doors in the 1970s, the Apollo was rescued in 1981 by the Inner City Theater Group and reopened in 1985 for live shows. However, efforts to turn the theater into a multimedia production facility failed. Only recently, with JVC Jazz Festival performances and the opening of the new musical, “Harlem Song,” has the theater showed

—Compiled by Patrice D. Johnson

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