I was sharing those sentiments with my longtime friend and FLM editor, Michele Lomax. She knew exactly what I was talking about as she had just finished editing a business memoir for a client who felt the same and that he had made it his life’s work to address exactly that gap. Naturally, I requested an introduction and within a week I met James H. Lowry, a true legend in the mentorship world.
As we sipped tequila at his place in Chicago, I learned more about his journey. He was the mentor and resource that I wish I had 20 years ago. He is a business icon, sought after speaker, strategic advisor and nationally recognized workforce and supplier diversity expert and pioneer. He was the first African American consultant for global consulting firm McKinsey & Company in 1968. Later, he became the first African American senior partner at the prestigious Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he led the firm’s workforce diversity, ethnic marketing and minority business development consulting practice.
In the early 1960’s, Mr. Lowry was an associate director with the US Peace Corps, stationed in Lima, Peru, where he met Senator Robert F. Kennedy who recruited him to be a staffer at the new Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in Brooklyn. He co-hosted the pioneering television show Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City’s first program written, produced and presented by blacks at a time when blacks were largely invisible on television, or seen only in news footage about riots, protests or crime. In 1985, he also co-hosted the groundbreaking television show MBR: The Minority Business Report.
Since 1999, Mr. Lowry has been an adjunct professor and the academic advisor of the one-week course on minority business development for the National Minority Supplier Development Council as part of the Advanced Management Education Program of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Mr. Lowry has been recognized for his life of dedication in his field and respected by those he has mentored along the way, including John Legend, a former BCG mentee, who presented him with the Alvaro L. Martins Heritage Award at the Executive Leadership Council’s Recognition Gala in 2017. Earlier this year, he published his second book, Change Agent: A Life Dedicated to Creating Wealth for Minorities. This book is an intimate memoir that demonstrates the power of iconic mentors and pivotal opportunities leveraged across the globe and offers solutions to the ever widening wealth gap that plagues black and brown communities today.
After spending time with Mr. Lowry, or Uncle Jim, as known by his countless mentees, I wanted to not only shine a light on what he has done in his 40 plus years of experience in the field of minority business development, but also highlight his proposed solutions that will help minorities in business narrow the wealth gap in their communities.
Daughter Camille
Robert F. Kennedy