These Are The Business Titans That Made The First ForbesBLK 50 List

Forbes

The inaugural list of the most powerful, impactful and wealthiest Black Americans.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jabariyoung/2024/12/19/forbes-blk-50-2024/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Ali Jackson Jolly. I'm here with senior writer Jabari Young. He is the lead editor for

00:11Forbes BLK and the editor and writer responsible for launching the inaugural Forbes BLK 50 list.

00:20Yeah, yeah.

00:21Jabari, yeah, welcome. Thanks for being here with us.

00:24I know this is weird being on this side, but thank you for having me, Ali. I really appreciate it.

00:28Let me know if you want to switch at any time.

00:31Um, let me ask you, this is the who's who's list of wealth, power and impact with respect

00:40to the black community in America. But tell us about this list. What should we know?

00:45Why are why did you decide that this was the right time to launch this list?

00:50Well, first of all, happy holidays. I meant to say that to you off the top. And, you know,

00:56I don't know if there's a time to ever do anything. It's the right time. You know,

01:00you just it's the time that you feel it. And, you know, you know, as well as I do,

01:04like I wanted to do this in 2025. But, you know, for those people who don't know,

01:09we had came out with the story about David Stewart becoming the richest black American.

01:14And the feedback that we received, or at least I received, I know was just very personal.

01:19And it was, you know, teachers of which reaching out and just people. So this story touched people

01:25didn't know who he was. And then obviously, you know, he surpassed, you know, Robert Smith. So

01:30the reaction kind of prompted me to say, you know what, I know we sitting on this list idea,

01:34but let's fast forward it. And then, you know, being in discussion with our chief

01:39consultant officer, Randall Lane, just about the way that it should be organized.

01:44And everything just kind of happened, you know, really, really quick. And that made me the David

01:48Stewart moment made me more happy that we were going to do it in 2024. But the original went

01:55back to, you know, listen, I knew when we let launch for us be okay, okay, we get through the

01:59summits, but eventually it has to be a list to kind of put them on top. So the idea was circulating

02:04for a year and a half, it was just a matter of how you were going to do it, making sure that it was

02:08done the correct way from a community standpoint, making sure that it touched Forbes pillars,

02:13right? Because any brand you work for, you always want to make sure that it's a representation of

02:17that. So it couldn't just be any old list. It had to incorporate some type of wealth, right,

02:21which is what we do best talk about money. And it's just kind of getting the brainstorming going,

02:26talking to colleagues, talking to yourself. And then, you know, anytime you have that many

02:31ingredients, and you put it in a mixer, something is going to come out of it. And so, you know,

02:36that's what this list was. And again, it's about empowering the ecosystem. It's more so it's not

02:41just the names on it, it's making sure that people know that there are a whole bunch of individuals,

02:47and a whole bunch of business sectors doing a whole bunch of great things. And here's why you

02:51should know who they are some of who you do know who they are. But the this is why you should know

02:56what they're doing, because they may be celebrating their business and what they do from a career

03:00standpoint, but in the business world, as you know, Ali, two different worlds.

03:04Yeah, so we're going to dig into those names who are on those lists on that list. But before we do

03:10that, anyone who has read your list, read your intro post for the list, they know that you

03:18reference that Forbes did publish a ranking of the wealthiest black Americans back in 2009.

03:27Forbes hasn't since published a list of the wealthiest black people in America. I want to

03:33push back again, why? Why did you decide you know, there's that and there was that empty space.

03:40And then in 2025, boom, here it comes. Why?

03:43You know, Forbes has a lot of, I won't use the word old, but in this kind of world,

03:47they have a lot of old great IP of stories and of black entrepreneurs who they've written about who

03:53they touched. And you know, there's nothing wrong with instead of always trying to break news,

03:58break news and be the dude, there's nothing wrong with going back to revisit news that was once did

04:02and you know, which was published and then going to revisit it, update it, publish it,

04:07see what's going on today that's relevant. And I think that 2009 list for me was the foundation

04:12of the wealth component, because the work was there. Barry Gordy was on that list, Tracy Maitland,

04:18you know, someone individual who made this list is on that list. And it's like, man, it'd be great

04:22to touch some of these people to find out what they're doing and where they are now. And some

04:26of that was done by former staff at Forbes, right? You go on and you're reading their old work. You

04:31know, Nathan Vardy was a phenomenal writer and I went and read a lot of his work, you know,

04:36and so, you know, you go back and look at all the stuff that was done and you incorporate the work

04:40that was there. You incorporate that history into anything that you're doing today and you feel like

04:45it's going to work. And so, by incorporating that 2009 list and understanding what the pillars were

04:50there, looking at who was making, who made that list, Kobe Bryant, God bless his life is on that

04:55list, great Shaquille O'Neal. And then kind of saying, okay, we don't want everybody to make

04:59this list because we don't want to be a repeat, right? But let's use this as one of the foundations

05:03so that way when you go to look at the Forbes BLK 50, you know, hopefully 20 years from now,

05:08someone will look back and say, oh, this is where it started. And if they want to trace it even

05:12further, 2009 list is there. Yeah. So all right, now let's dig into these names. Yeah.

05:20Some of these names are the who's who of the wealthiest black Americans.

05:26Beyonce, whose net worth was reported by Forbes to be $760 million.

05:36Tyler Perry, who became a billionaire in 2020. And tech founder Alex Karp, who is-

05:44I grew up in Philly, by the way, so here you go.

05:48Philly native tech founder Alex Karp. But there's some other folks who many people will never have

05:55heard of that made that list. Talk to us about some of those surprises, some of those interesting

06:01people that you were happy to maybe unveil or discover for the readers that you think are

06:12some of the most powerful, wealthiest, most impactful black Americans that no one's really

06:16writing about yet. Well, I mean, listen, two of them came, one of them came to our conference and

06:19Dr. Neil Youngblood was on that list. And I think we know how impactful he is and the work that he's

06:23doing and the lawsuit that he has and trying to understand where his generational wealth

06:27was stolen. And so I think that's an impactful individual. And I think you can't ever mention

06:33his name enough because he's doing some great work and he has. And listen, if you go to trace

06:38the stories, they cut down, they shut down his block because President Joe Biden used to come

06:44and visit him, right? That's Dr. Neil Youngblood on that list. And another guy I found very

06:50fascinating, it took me a minute to find him, was Tracy Maitland, the avid capital management,

06:56the president and founder there who made his riches off of Wall Street through the era of

07:00convertible bonds and understanding how that worked. He sent me a book and understanding his

07:07firm and what made him successful. And so those are people. Calvin Butler, who is the CEO of

07:14Exelon. And that's the largest utility company in all the U.S. And they service Philadelphia,

07:20Pico Energy is under them. I mean, Chicago, Maryland. I mean, another individual who has

07:26nuclear plants on his radar or under his jurisdiction. And so these are powerful

07:31individuals. I think we all know John Hope Bryant and the impact that he's had. But I mean,

07:38$130 million that he received from Shopify, that's not easy. Shopify is just not going to go around

07:44giving, oh, you want to do good? You want to do good? Great. Just give them all $100 million. No,

07:47you have to have a track record. You got to trust you. And these are individuals that I think you

07:51can't, you've got to praise them as much as you possibly can, because they're doing the real work.

07:55And they're setting great examples. And they're allowing young kids who may grow up in areas that

08:03are disadvantaged to let them know, hey, you can choose a different route.

08:08Nothing against sports, nothing against entertainment. We love them. We love the

08:11individuals that do it. But there are a whole other routes there. Jonathan Moody,

08:16largest black architect firm in the US. His dad just died, Kurt Moody. And he's an impactful

08:21individual, right? I mean, he's taking over an architect firm that his dad built.

08:26Todd McDonald, Aldo McDonald, I mean, the largest black bank in all of the US with the Liberty Bank

08:31and Trust, right, down in New Orleans, right? I mean, Todd Aldo McDonald, his father started that

08:35bank from a trailer in 1972. It was a big giant white trailer. And now look at it today, a bank

08:40that serves 11 states and a billion dollars on assets. Now, that's small compared to the larger

08:47banks. But for the black community, that's big, right? A billion dollars, because people have to

08:51understand, in order to hold a billion dollars, the government says that you have to have a

08:55certain amount of deposits. You have to have a ratio. You have to have a certain amount of capital

08:58there, right? And so people don't understand. Todd McDonald, he went out and raised the $30

09:03million that was needed to hold that capital for that Liberty to cross that. It was very

09:06undercover stuff that was done during a pandemic, but that was the guy that went out and raised the

09:11money from the JP mortgages and the Wells Fargo's of the world to make sure that his bank was now

09:15considered the largest black bank in America. I think it's all business. I think it's all

09:19important individuals. Melissa Bradley and the work that she's doing with 1863, she wants to

09:24grow 100 billion in wealth creation, right, by scaling new entrepreneurs, new generation

09:29entrepreneurs, women, people of color, giving them the capital that they need. And not only giving

09:34them the capital, but scaling their business, allowing them to go from solopreneurs into real

09:39entrepreneurs, hiring people, right? And then think about the trickle-down effect, Ali.

09:43You hire someone, they see what you're doing, and that person wants to turn into an entrepreneur.

09:47They go do it because they see you do it. It's the same Calvin Butler story, the same Chris Womack

09:51story. They've seen other people do it, and they follow their path. I've seen other black

09:56journalists do it, and I want to be a journalist. Sometimes it's about what you see, and it opens up

10:00a whole new world. This list is meant to provide that ecosystem and just talk about people who may

10:07not get talked about on our platform as much, who may not get talked about on the general public's,

10:13the Instagram of the world. It may not go viral, but they deserve viral moments,

10:17and hopefully this is one. Yeah, and so I love that you talk about being seen and being heard,

10:24and in this country, those from historically marginalized communities don't always feel like

10:31they are seen and heard, and yet you've launched this list. We've launched the list. I did not do

10:39this by myself. A team did this. A team of talented Forbes reporters with your guidance launched this

10:47list. We have a colleague, the chief impact officer at Forbes, who always says, you can't be

10:54what you can't see, and I usually push back a little and say, well, it's hard to be what you

10:59can't see. That's right. Tell me about where you think this list will be in the future and how

11:10it will grow because of perhaps some Black business leaders and entrepreneurs

11:21may see themselves or themselves of the future on this list.

11:26You hope that one person can take that and the message gets spread. I hope word of mouth

11:33that people who talk about the list, talk about it and reference it at the highest regard,

11:39talk about it and say, oh, Mr. Womack, Mr. Butler, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Perry, I found you out

11:47by looking. I know your story by looking. I know now, oh, that's how he did that by looking at the

11:53Forbes be okay list because those bios are written in a way where it's not just, hey, he did this,

11:57he made a million dollars. No, it's like, hey, they found a passion for this. That person grew

12:01up in the Jim Crow South. It's not just allowing you to, it's giving you a glimpse of their story

12:07and hope that another person goes and they take that and they Google that individual and they

12:11go deeper. And that motivates them to be the next CEO of a utility company.

12:17But they didn't say, hey, you know what? I want to top Tyler Perry. I want to open up a studio

12:20somewhere else. I mean, you're just hoping to motivate people. We go to HBCU schools all the

12:25time. We talked to, I was just down in Morgan State. There are students in certain schools

12:30who still don't see it. And I feel when I walk in those classrooms and we're talking post pandemic,

12:36think about where we are after the pandemic. It's our job as journalists, it's my job while we're in

12:42this seat to make sure that the people who are doing it get the highest platform in the world

12:46to share their story and hope that as our former advisor Lynn Elmore said that the public

12:54responsibility that we have, they can see what we're doing, take the message, run with it,

13:01the outcome will take care of itself. Let's talk about Forbes be okay.

13:04And why this is a unique list because of the community behind Forbes be okay. Those who

13:14don't know, Forbes be okay is not only an editorial platform is also a physical community

13:23made up of black entrepreneurs, leaders, professionals, community builders.

13:30How was the BL Forbes be okay community involved in this list?

13:38How did it inspire it? Or how how did it maybe help source story ideas?

13:45Yeah, I mean, listen, as you go through, you know, listen, credit to yourself, my colleague,

13:50you know, Maggie McGrath, I mean, you know, working with you guys, and understanding the way

13:56lists should be put together. Methodology is a key part of that. And, you know, in working and

14:02seeing the old list that, you know, I know, Maggie has worked on, and understanding, okay,

14:06what methodology? Okay, you know what, let me just start, like, I don't know anything.

14:11Let's call up my, you know, the friends that I've met at Goldman Sachs, when I was looking at the,

14:15you know, 1 million black to find out like, hey, what do you guys look for in entrepreneurs,

14:20right? And then call up to other VC firms, make sure that banks are the top by calling up the,

14:25you know, FDIC. And, you know, you got this journalism work to be done. And then there's

14:29the other side, we did go through a public nomination, to go and maybe find out names,

14:35and we found a lot that we did not know, let alone people who maybe we weren't looking at

14:40that our community says, well, you need to, right? So I'm very proud of that, that when we go through

14:45that public nomination, well, the only way to pick those names off the public nomination after we vet

14:49them, right, to make sure that these individuals are lining up, the way you're impacting your work,

14:54right? Is it vanity? Is it me, me, me, me, me? Or is it trying to really uplift community,

15:00prove that? What does that mean? And so this is where our community members we hold, we expect

15:05that they're holding us accountable, when we vet those names and say, okay, here you go.

15:10Now, they're going to do the rest of the work. Now, what does that mean? Right? We presented them

15:14the names that we've received from nominations, public nominations, and you send it right back

15:18to the public. Hey, our advisory members are members of the public. Here are names who we

15:22vetted. Here are names who we believe should, they are eligible to make a Forbes list. Now,

15:27I don't think that everybody on there should make the list, right? But that's not my, I can't call

15:32that. That's for the members. My job was to vet them. My job was to share the names with our

15:36community manager, Aisha Mendez, yourself to make sure that they're, you guys are holding me

15:40accountable, right? Based off of what I saw. And if you have any pushback, let's discuss that from

15:45an editorial standpoint to understand where we can get to a good place, right? That's true journalism.

15:51And then once we do that, the community members go out, and we put up a voting mechanism,

15:56and they voted on the people, and we took the highest scores, and those people make the list.

16:01Okay, so last thought. Do you want to give us a sneak peek? We have the list.

16:08Forbes does very well. We have a list. We have a summit.

16:12The third, right? Remember, we were in the inaugural Forbes BLK Summit, and now we're

16:17talking about the third? I mean, listen, it's there. It's there. That's the next part of this.

16:23The first one is to get the list out of the door. Now is to accumulate all those names and

16:28summon them to the summit. So that way we can talk about these things through a form of live

16:33journalism. So can't give away the date and all that good stuff, but it's going to be in the

16:38springtime. We can say that. We learned a lot from being in June, right? We know it was a lot hot,

16:43and we have goals now in incorporating the HBCU, looking at the jobs of tomorrow.

16:50We talk about those CEOs who aren't from utility companies. Well, now we have to bring them on

16:55stage so we can let them talk to a whole bunch of young group of entrepreneurs about ways that they

17:00can grow, whether it be through their career, whether it be through being an entrepreneur,

17:06or whether it be, hey, listen, they might want to go and work for this other company one day,

17:11now you have the CEO right there. And then listen, turning that into a luxurious experience.

17:17I'm excited about the third one, because on this one, we're going to introduce the

17:20Community of the Year Award, and incorporating that to let people know, back to your question

17:25about why we incorporate the community, let people know not only are you guys helping us,

17:29we want to recognize you, because we understand that having that award on your resume,

17:34it just may allow you to get that job. Yeah, now we are out of time. Jabari Young,

17:39thanks for being here. Thanks for telling us about this list. We'll see you soon.

17:43Absolutely. Thank you.

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