Connected Conversations: Minority Business Entrepreneurship and Ownership

Jamie Joshua, Esq.

Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University

Jamie Joshua received her Juris Doctorate in 2010 at the University of Baltimore School of Law and is a member of the Maryland State Bar since 2011. Jamie’s educational and professional path provided her opportunities to work directly with organizations aimed at promoting diversity in the legal and science field. As the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) at the Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Jamie helps develop and implement the school's diversity and inclusion strategy and creates a safe space for dialogue across the school community. She received her MA at Stonybrook University. She is from Baltimore, Maryland.

Kyle Webb

CFO

Webb Family Enterprises

Kyle is the radical expression of community through service.  He serves as Chief Financial Officer of Webb Family Enterprises which owns and operates sixteen McDonald’s franchisees, Webb Investments (which has investments in restaurants, real estate, green technology, and other local businesses), CEEM (Cooperative Economic Empowerment Movement) an economic and social empowerment initiative to improve quality of life and opportunities for African Americans, and consults small-to-midsize family businesses.

Kyle’s passion for diversity and inclusion, allows him to serve in various leadership roles within the McDonald’s community including on the board of the McDonald’s Operators Association of Southern California, the So Cal People Team, and the Advisory Council of the Inland Empire Ronald McDonald House. Combined with his dedication to radical expression of community through service, Kyle serves on multiple boards including: Bright Prospect, a college access organization that sees young people to and through college; The San Bernardino Community College District’s Economic Development and Corporate Training Foundation; and University of La Verne’s College of Business and Public Management’s Advisory Council.

Kyle Webb is a Southern California native and youngest of Reggie and Rene Webb’s three children.  Kyle graduated from Morehouse College, with a degree in Business Administration-Finance, and went on to work at The Walt Disney Company in the ABC Television Network’s finance department.  He earned his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.   In his current role at Webb Family Enterprises, he continues to train and motivate his staff and employees so that they may be able to live purposefully and fulfill their wildest dreams.

Rosalind Butler

Assistant Director

Tulane Family Business Center

Rosalind G. Butler is the Assistant Director of the Family Business Center at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. For the past 15 years, she has worked with family-owned businesses from across the Southeast region on matters specific to family business dynamics and developed programming to address the critical issues that impact family-held companies. She brings 20 years of experience in working at Tulane University in the areas of entrepreneurship and family business. Prior to her current role at the Family Business Center, Mrs. Butler worked with undergraduate and high school students when she launched Tulane University’s Academies of Entrepreneurship program. This initiative focused on connecting college students with students from inner-city schools who were also interested in business ownership. The program was designed to create a peer-to-peer learning experience between college and high schools students with the hopes of stimulating interest in higher education, as well as entrepreneurship. The Academies program also sought to demonstrate how core competencies such as English, math, and writing were relevant to owning and managing a business. Mrs. Butler is a native of New Orleans and graduate of Xavier University. She has spent the majority of her professional career in the non-profit area.

Jeremiah Swain MMH '20

Founder and Owner

The Other Narrative

Seven years ago, I got fired from my first job after graduating from Morehouse College after just over a year. I was told I wasn't a good cultural fit. I decided, at 23, my next career move needed to be in an industry that I could explore and grow in as I learned more about myself, while being myself. I chose hospitality and enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park’s Associates in Culinary Arts program two months after that dismissal. I'm now entering my final semester as an MMH candidate at Cornell's SC Johnson College of Business.

Building community through cultural and cuisines exchanges was my guiding philosophy when I entered this industry seven years ago. Knowledgeable of hospitalities breath, I homed in on a philosophy that would help keep focused on my purpose. I am still on this quest, to find and tell the stories of people around the world through hospitality encounters, be they around food or bonfire. This focus has opened doors for me to consult, open, and operate hospitality ventures in San Francisco, Brazil, Columbia, and NYC. Balancing entrepreneurship and a more structured hospitality career allowed me the opportunity to fully develop my toolbox of skills. It also gave me the credibility to offer perspective and create from a deep well of interpersonal experiences. I designed The Other Narrative Inc. as a way to utilize storytelling to challenge idealistic notions of Self, by highlighting the Others perspective. In telling these stories, I look to uncover strategic opportunities for brands to authentically engage consumers at nuanced cultural intersections. I specifically take a measured approach to marketing, branding, or any creative process by first humanizing the Other by understanding their narrative. When done intentionally and wholeheartely, this leads to a repositioning of how I see Self in relation to the Other. From there, I create.

Lawrence Watkins MBA '10

Founder & CEO | President & COO

Great Black Speakers Bureau | The Black Business School

Lawrence Watkins is the President & COO of The Black Business School, a platform that helps African-Americans obtain a culturally relevant, yet practical education in all things wealth building. The BBS has educated close to 100,000 students in areas such as entrepreneurship, stock market investing, and real estate investing. Lawrence is also the Founder & CEO of Great Black Speakers, the largest African-American owned speakers bureau in the nation.

Lawrence's new initiative, The Black Power Institute, aims to organize the community development ideas of Black people and mobilize resources around them. The BPI believes that there will never only be one "black agenda", and its primary goal is to layout the different paths that Black people can follow to make positive and powerful changes in their communities, no matter how big or small.

Lawrence is a graduate of The Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, where he earned a MBA in Entrepreneurship. He is also a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Louisville. Lawrence is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, The Young Entrepreneur Council, and The Traffic Sales and Profit Mastermind Group. He currently resides in Medellin, Colombia with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.