October 2017 – THE MOTIVATOR – Page 17
SPOTLIGHT ON THE CEO
Reginald F . Lewis
Reginald F . Lewis ( December 7 , 1942 to January 19 , 1993 ) was an American businessman . He was the richest African-American man in the 1980s . Born in Baltimore , Maryland , he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood . He won a football scholarship to Virginia State College , graduating with a degree in political science in 1965 . He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1968 . In 1992 , Forbes listed Lewis among the 400 richest Americans , with a net worth estimated at $ 400 million . He also was the first African-American business owner to build a billion dollar company , Beatrice Foods . In 1992 , he donated $ 3 million to Harvard Law School , the largest grant at the time in the law school ' s history .
Education
During his high school years at Dunbar , Reginald excelled in both his studies and sports . As quarterback of the football team , shortstop on the baseball team , and a forward on the basketball team , he served as captain for all three teams . Reginald was also elected vice president of the student body ; his friend and classmate , Robert M . Bell ( current Chief Judge of Maryland ), was elected president . In addition , Reginald worked nights and weekends at jobs with his grandfather , a head waiter and maitre d '.
In 1961 , Reginald entered Virginia State University on a football scholarship , majoring in economics . He graduated on the Dean ' s List despite having a rough first year academically as well as losing his scholarship due to an injury . After losing his scholarship , he worked in a bowling alley and as a photographer ' s assistant to help pay his expenses . In his senior year , the Rockefeller Foundation funded a program at Harvard Law School to select a few black students to attend summer school at Harvard to introduce them to legal studies in general .
At the end of the program , Reginald was invited to attend Harvard Law School - the only person in the 148-year history of Harvard Law to be admitted before applying to the school . He arrived at Harvard with $ 50 in his pocket . During his third year at Harvard , he discovered the direction for his future career in a course on securities law . He wrote his third-year paper on takeovers . He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1968 and went to work for a prestigious New York law firm ( Paul , Weiss ).
Business career
Recruited to top New York law firm Paul , Weiss , Rifkind , Wharton & Garrison , LLP . Immediately after law school , Lewis left to start his own firm two years later . After fifteen years as a corporate lawyer with his own practice , Lewis moved to the other side of the table by creating TLC Group L . P ., a venture capital firm , in 1983 .
His first major deal was the purchase of the McCall Pattern Company , a home sewing pattern business for $ 22.5 million . Lewis had learned from a Fortune magazine article that the Esmark holding company , which had recently purchased Norton Simon , planned to divest from the McCall Pattern Company , a maker of home sewing patterns founded in 1870 . With fewer and fewer people sewing at home , McCall was seemingly on the decline — though it had posted profits of $ 6 million in 1983 on sales of $ 51.9 million . At the time , McCall was number two in its industry , holding 29.7 percent of the market , compared to industry leader Simplicity Patterns with 39.4 percent .
He managed to negotiate the price down and then raised $ 1 million himself from family and friends and borrowed the rest from institutional investors and investment banking firm First Boston Corp .
Within one year , he turned the company around by freeing up capital tied in fixed assets such as building and machinery , finding a new use for machinery during downtime by manufacturing greeting cards , and he then started to recruit managers from rival companies . He further strengthened McCall by containing costs , improving quality , beginning to export to China , and emphasizing new product introductions . This new combination led to the company ' s most profitable year in its history . With the addition of McCall real estate worth an estimated $ 6 million that the company retained ownership of , he later sold
McCall at a 90-1 return , resulting in a tremendous profit for investors . Lewis ' s share was 81.7 percent of the $ 90 million .
In 1987 , Lewis bought Beatrice International Foods from Beatrice Companies for $ 985 million , renaming it TLC Beatrice International , a snack food , beverage , and grocery store conglomerate that was the largest African-American owned and managed business in the U . S . The deal was partly financed through Mike Milken of the maverick investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert . In order to reduce the amount needed to finance the LBO , Lewis came up with a plan to sell off some of the division ' s assets simultaneous with the takeover .
When TLC Beatrice reported revenue of $ 1.8 billion in 1987 , it became the first black-owned company to have more than $ 1 billion in annual sales . At its peak in 1996 , TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc . had sales of $ 2.2 billion and was number 512 on Fortune magazine ' s list of 1,000 largest companies .
Philanthropy
In 1987 Lewis established The Reginald F . Lewis Foundation , which funded grants of approximately $ 10 million to various non-profit programs and organizations while he was alive . His first major grant was an unsolicited $ 1 million to Howard University in 1988 ; the federal government matched the grant , making the gift to Howard University $ 2 million , which was used to fund an endowment for scholarships , fellowships , and faculty sabbaticals .[ 1 ] In 1992 , he donated $ 3 million to Harvard Law School , the largest grant at the time in the law school ' s history .[ 2 ] In gratitude , the school renamed its International Law Center the Reginald F . Lewis International Law Center , the first major facility at Harvard named in honor of an African-American .[ 3 ]
While alive , Lewis made known his desire to support a museum of African American culture . In 2005 , the Reginald F . Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture opened in Baltimore with support from a $ 5 million grant from his foundation .[ 4 ] It is the East Coast ’ s second largest African American museum occupying an 82,000 squarefoot facility with permanent and special exhibition space , interactive learning environments , auditorium , resource center , oral history recording studio , museum shop , café , classrooms , meeting rooms , outside terrace and reception areas .[ 5 ] It highlights the history and accomplishments of African Americans with a special focus on Maryland ’ s African American community . The museum is also a Smithsonian affiliate .
Personal life
Reginald Lewis was married to Loida Nicolas-Lewis . They had two daughters , Leslie and Christina . He died at age 50 , from brain cancer . Nicolas-Lewis took over the company a year after his death .
To advertise in The Motivator Magazine Please contact one of our sales executives at phoenixinstitute @ gmail . com