Eric G. Johnson is Chairman of Baldwin Richardson Foods Company, one of the largest African- American-owned businesses in the food industry. Headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, with manufacturing facilities in Macedon and Williamson, New York.
In 1989, Johnson, following in his father’s footsteps, became chief executive officer of Johnson Products Company, the nation’s first African-American owned publicly-traded company. Having turned around the company’s performance in 1991, it was the seventh best performing stock on the American Stock Exchange and earned the American Management Association’s “Turn Around” award.
A business entrepreneur, in 1992 he purchased Baldwin Ice Cream Co., a small company established in Chicago in 1921. Johnson expanded the distribution and sales of the company, and in 1997, completed the acquisition of Richardson Foods from the Quaker Oats Company. The company produced Nance’s mustard and condiments, Mrs. Richardson’s famous dessert toppings, and liquid products for McDonald’s.
Baldwin Richardson Foods is a major producer of products and ingredients for McDonald’s Corporation, Kellogg, General Mills, Dunkin Brands, Starbucks, and Frito-Lay Quaker Oats. The company also has retail brands and food service products that it distributes nationally.
Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts and Science degrees in Finance and Management from Babson College. In 1971, as the student representative to the management department, he work with Professor John Hornaday on the evolution of the entrepreneurial studies program and curriculum.
He has served three terms as a Trustee of the College. Each year a four year, full tuition, scholarship is awarded for the Baldwin Richardson Foods Scholars Program. The company has a sister program at Spelman College in Atlanta for women in food science.
He serves as a Chairman of the Board of Directors at Baldwin Richardson Foods Company.
He’s also:
As a curator, writer, lecturer and editor, Sirmans has established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary art.
Called one of the most talented curators of this generation, he has curated the show Ralph Bunche: Diplomat for Peace and Justice at the Queens Museum of Art and was co-curator of Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Brooklyn Museum, a monumental exhibition affording him prestige and distinction in the art world. He has curated exhibitions for Los Angeles (1999), Atlanta (2003) and Baltimore (2005) as well as the shows Americas Remixed in Milan, Italy; Mass Appeal in Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and Sackville, Canada and a Moment’s Notice at the Inman Gallery, Houston, Texas in 2002. From 2001 until 2003 he curated One Planet Under A Groove: Contemporary Art and Hip Hop at the Bronx Museum of Art; the Spelman College Art Gallery, Atlanta; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Villa Stuck in Munich, Germany.
Sirmans currently serves as the Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, among the largest in North America.
Naima Cochrane is an award-winning music marketer and leading voice in Black culture whose superpower is storytelling.
MUSIC EXECUTIVE
As a music industry professional, Naima spent more than 20 years between record labels including Arista, Columbia, and Epic Records and then in artist management, first with EGOT John Legend and later with Oscar-nominated, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award-winning actress and singer Cynthia Erivo. In a business driven by trends, shaping artists’ brand stories with genuine voice, content, and messaging was Naima’s north star.
STORYTELER
In 2017, Naima launched #MusicSermon, which began as a storytelling series on Twitter/X focused on pre-blog era Soul and Hip-Hop. The series was a viral hit and encouraged community around shared nostalgia and love of music. That community expanded from Twitter/X to Instagram with Naima’s annual #BlackMusicMonthChallenge. The community and engagement around #MusiSermon garnered Naima a spot on Essence Magazine’s inaugural Power 40 list for music in 2023.
#MusicSermon prompted a transition into journalism, and since 2018 Naima’s voice and work have been featured in outlets including Billboard, Rolling Stone, and the NY Times, as well as published works including 2021’s Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. Partners including Spotify, Netflix, and Sirius XM/Pandora have tapped Naima’s unique expertise for campaigns, research, and scripted projects, including Sirius/Pandora’s Webby-award-winning All Music is Black Music podcast. She remains entrenched in the business side of the entertainment industry as a marketing consultant and led the creative strategy for Empire Records’ Clio Award-winning campaign for late singer Aaliyah’s highly anticipated catalog re-release in 2021.
EDUCATOR
Naima is passionate about framing music within a broader cultural and historical context in ways that serve current and future Black artists and executives. She leads mission-critical research as a founding board member of the advocacy organization the Black Music Action Coalition, including the org’s annual Music Industry Action Report Card. In Fall 2022, she joined the faculty of The Clive Davis Institute at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts where she is an Assistant Arts Professor.
Naima splits her time between Silver Spring, MD and NY, indulges in too much TV, and is known to randomly break into ’90s R&B choreography in public places.
Mr. Sykes currently serves on the following Boards; The Natixis Loomis Sayles Funds Board of Trustees, Apartment Investment and Management Company (NYSE:AIV), The Eastern Bank Board of Advisors, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston External Diversity Advisory Board, Real Estate Executive Council (Former Chairman & Emeritus), The City of Boston’s Civic Design Commission, The Urban Land Institute’s New England Advisory Board and NAIOP Massachusetts Board Management Committee.
Previously, Mr. Sykes served on the following Boards: Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE: ACRE) Board of Directors & Compensation Committee, The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Board, 2008-2014 (Chairman 2012-2014, Audit Committee, Business Practices Committee), Capital Crossing Bank Preferred REIT Board of Directors (Acquired by Lehman Brothers Bank), 2004-2009, Bank Boston & Fleet Community Bank Board of Directors 1994-2004, ICON Architects Board of Directors, 2004-2006, Mr. Sykes also served on the Board of Overseers for Beth Israel Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Boston University Medical Center and Brigham & Women’s Hospital Osher Center.
Mr. Sykes is Managing Director of Accordia Partners, LLC, a Boston based real estate investment and development company. Accordia executes large scale public-private real estate projects with a goal of financial and socially responsible investing success.
Mr. Sykes has been a speaker at Harvard University Business School & Kennedy School of Government, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management and Center for Real Estate, Cornell University Real Estate Program and The League of Historical Cities of the World Conferences in Japan, Turkey and Australia.
Mr. Sykes attended the Harvard University Business School, Owners and Presidents Management Program, the MIT Center for Real Estate Development Commercial Development Executive Program and the L’Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University.
Ms. Jones has more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. Over her entire career, Ms. Jones has invested in and loaned CRE assets on behalf of large pension funds and institutional investors, including Equitable Real Estate (largest pension fund advisor and investment management firm at the time), GMACCM (one of the largest CRE lenders, owned by GM) and CWCapital (the U.S. debt investment platform owned by Caisse de dépôt, one of the largest pension fund managers in Quebec).
Ms. Jones is a seasoned veteran in CRE investments, capital markets, and structured finance. Since 2009, Ms. Jones has served as both Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Basis Investment Group (Basis), a multi-strategy commercial real estate investment platform she founded with JEMB Realty Corporation that acquires and originates a variety of senior and subordinated loans, preferred equity and joint venture equity positions on behalf of its investors. Under her leadership, Basis has succeeded in closing nearly $4.0 billion in commercial real estate debt and structured equity related investments across the United States.
Prior to joining Basis, Ms. Jones worked at CWCapital LLC (CW) from 2004 to 2009, serving as head of CW’s fixed and floating rate Capital Markets Lending Division and closing approximately $6B in investments. Between 1997 and 2004, Ms. Jones was a Senior Vice President of Commercial Capital Initiatives, Inc., a GMACCM subsidiary (now Berkadia) (GMAC) and part of the leadership team responsible for creating GMAC’s Capital Markets lending division. Prior to her seven years with GMAC, she held various positions on the equity and asset management side of the business at commercial real estate investment companies including Equitable Real Estate and AMRESCO Management, Inc.
Ms. Jones currently serves as Chair for Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE: CLI) and formerly served as Lead Independent Director since June 2020, is an Independent Director for Crown Castle International Corp.(NYSE: CCI), is the Chair of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), is a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW), is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, is on the Advisory Board for NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate and is the Vice-Chairman of Basis Impact Group Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a pipeline of women and minorities in commercial real estate. Ms. Jones formerly served as an Independent Director for Monogram Residential Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MORE). Ms. Jones was selected as one of Crain’s New York Business’ Notable Black Leaders and Executives of 2021, received the 2020 Cornell Baker Industry Leader Award, received the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) 2019 Finance Catalyst Award and was recognized as one of The Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business in 2017.
Ms. Jones holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA with a concentration in Real Estate Finance from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
Chante Butler joined Diageo North America in October 2023 as Vice President, Inclusion and Diversity. In this role she focuses on developing a fully integrated, cross-functional strategy embedding Diageo’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities and ambitions in everything we do.
Prior to Diageo, Chante headed the DEI function at Flatiron Health, a health technology firm with a mission to improve and extend lives via learnings from individuals living with cancer. Her expertise combines a deep understanding of DEI principles and practices with extensive business experience and a proven track record of driving organizational change. At Flatiron, Chante significantly increased belonging engagement scores in the company and designed a bespoke strategy to drive inclusion across the enterprise.
Prior to Flatiron, she spent several years providing strategic advice and counsel to a broad array of companies at the global consulting firms of Accenture and Deloitte and Touche. Chante also brings an entrepreneurial spirit: early in her career, she founded her own consulting firm providing engineering, regulatory compliance, and quality assurance services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology Fortune 500 companies. She is also part of the ownership group of the Cape Town Tigers, the three-time South African Basketball Club Champions, competing in the NBA Africa/FIBA Basketball Africa League.
Stephanie Childs is Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations, Diageo North America (NYSE: DEO), a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits and beer. In her role, she is part of the executive leadership team of Diageo’s market-leading North America business and supports a committed group of communications, government relations and social impact program professionals dedicated to making the world a better place.
She oversees all community engagement programs, including partnerships with non-profit organizations, and under her leadership, Diageo launched the Multi-Cultural Consortium for Responsible Drinking (MCRD), a first-of-its kind initiative to educate diverse communities about responsible alcohol consumption. She sits on the Boards of the American Distilled Spirits Association, the British American Business Council and the Public Affairs Council, the leading professional development organization for corporate affairs experts. She is the executive sponsor of Diageo’s African American employee business resource group.
Tom Shropshire is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Diageo plc, and a member of its Executive Committee. Diageo is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the NYSE, and is a global leader in beverage alcohol with brands across spirits and beer, operating in nearly 180 countries and an outstanding collection of over 200 brands (including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Don Julio, Casamigos, Ketel One, Smirnoff, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Tanqueray).
Tom is also a non-executive director of the Bank of England, the Chair of the iconic British charity, Comic Relief, a Trustee of New York University School of Law and a Director of General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion. Before joining Diageo in 2021, Tom was a partner of Linklaters LLP.
Tom is a recognized leader in inclusion and diversity and has been identified as one of the most influential Black people in Britain over the last decade. In 2024, Tom was awarded with being the #1 Global Executive Role Model (Empower) and has been identified as General Counsel of the Year (Luxury Law). In 2023, Tom was the General Counsel of the Year (Legal Business) and a Top 20 GC in Europe (The Financial Times). Tom was also the author of the UN Global Compact’s “Guide for General Counsel on Corporate Sustainability” (2015).
Adrian Muhammad is a seasoned finance executive bringing nearly 30 years of global experience spanning business development, operations, advisory and investment services. Founder and managing partner of LaPhair Capital Partners, an influencer-backed, minority-led early-stage investment firm, he and his team support passionate leaders and innovative solutions focused on social responsibility in underserved communities. Adrian is also managing partner at Jackson | Shah & Company, a value driven consultancy at the intersection of investment and innovation, and fund co-manager at Obsidian Investment Partners.
Previously, Adrian served as Executive Vice-President at ZeroChaos (now Magnit), a leading global workforce management company. Beyond corporate success, he is committed to addressing systemic issues, notably championing financial literacy for underserved Black Americans. Co-founder of The Wealth Summit, Adrian aims to empower Black professional athletes with tools and knowledge to secure and grow their wealth post-retirement, fostering positive change within their communities. He ultimately seeks to create an ongoing dialogue on financial strategies and management, empowering individuals with the information and confidence to make informed financial decisions.
Adrian holds an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in computer information systems from Purdue University. He resides in Florida with his wife and family, while actively contributing to youth, social, and education-related charities and non-profits.
Akilah R. Ensley is a professional political strategist, community organizer, and fundraiser. She has experience building coalitions, program development, and community and political engagement.
As founder and CEO of Invictus Strategy Group, Akilah leads a team that works on resource development, fundraising, and strategic development for political campaigns and nonprofits, as well as donor advising for stakeholders large and small nationally. Since 2018, Invictus has raised over US $100 million for political candidates and organizations.
Akilah’s campaign work history includes President Obama’s 2012 Presidential Campaign, Finance Director for Mayor Andrew Gillum’s 2018 Florida Gubernatorial Campaign, Kay Hagan for US Senate, and Regional Field Director for Erskine Bowles for US Senate. And many other campaigns ranging from the New York Mayoral with Maya Wiley, many Federal races, and the re-election of MN Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Her work has also included roles as Deputy Field Director for Project Vote Program Manager for the Everybody Votes Campaign. Akilah has held several community engagement roles, such as Partnership Specialist for the United States Census Bureau, Principal Consultant for ERA Management and Consulting, LLC, Executive Director of the Pitt County Substance Abuse Coalition, Deputy Director of Major Gifts for the Truman National Security Project and Center for National Policy.
Akilah is an active Women’s Leadership Forum member and serves on the Planned Parenthood South Atlantic Board. She founded the New Leaders Council Chapter in North Carolina and has served as an At Large member of the Democratic National Committee.
Galen Gordon is an award-winning journalist and media executive whose career has spanned 30 years in local news, network news, and network sports.
Most recently, Galen served as Senior Vice President, Talent Strategy and Development for ABC News, the #1 news network in the US. He was responsible for recruiting, hiring, and maintaining the talent pipeline for all shows and platforms for the network. Galen was also charged with managing the network’s eight-figure talent budget.
Gordon created the ABC News Storytellers Summit, a development workshop hosted by ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations which launched during the 2021 journalism conventions for NABJ, NAHJ and AAJA. The Summit is designed to bring producers, writers, reporters and content creators together for a series of cutting-edge conversations and training sessions to take their storytelling to the next level.
Prior to rejoining ABC News in 2020, Galen spent about three years as vice president for the NFL Media Group, leading their talent management division. In this role, Gordon had many responsibilities, including fostering the relationship between the NFL and several journalism organizations. He created a talent coaching and performance development program, recruited all on- air talent and oversaw more than 60 anchors, reporters, and analysts for the NFL Media Group. He also hired a number of talent, including Jim Trotter, Joe Thomas, Michael Yam and MJ Acosta-Ruiz, who went on to become the network’s first female host of color and first female host of color to anchor a daily NFL show.
Prior to the NFL, Galen worked at ESPN for 11 years, where he had a strong track record for programming success and increasing reach with multicultural audiences. With ESPN, he launched “SportsCenter Coast to Coast,” ESPN’s first bi-coastal show, and “First Take,” a four-hour morning programming block on ESPN2 that provided an important platform for discussion and debate for journalists of color and women. Under Gordon’s leadership, “First Take” became ESPN’s most diverse studio show and the No. 1 program on ESPN2, following five consecutive years of ratings growth. He also created the NABJ/ESPN Stuart Scott internship program and served on the board of the NABJ’s Sports Task Force for six years.
Galen was a producer at CNN in Atlanta from 2003-2006, working on a wide range of network programming, including “Wolf Blitzer Reports,” “Live from CNN” and “Anderson Cooper 360.” He was a member of the team that won a Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the tsunami disaster in South Asia. He also served as a producer at WABC in New York on the morning, noon and evening newscasts.
Galen graduated from Oral Roberts University and currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, Adrienne, and son, Blake.
Storm Ascher is an independent curator, writer, and founder of Superposition Gallery and The Hamptons Black Arts Council. She has a BFA in Visual & Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts (2018), an MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute and Claremont Graduate University (2020) and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree for Art & Style 2022.
Storm founded Superposition Gallery in August 2018. She started her curatorial projects with a mission to subvert gentrification tactics used in urban development through art galleries. She refers to her gallery as “a socially conscious approach to contemporary art with a focus on borrowed space”. Superposition Gallery has drawn in exhibition participation from over 100 artists of different cultural backgrounds and multidisciplinary practices, such as Layo Bright, MR. WASH, Derrick Adams, Ludovic Nkoth, Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Tariku Shiferaw, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, Nate Lewis, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Helina Metaferia, and Muna Malik. By starting a nomadic gallery model without a brick and mortar address, the gallery has continued to grow their community outreach through site specific iterations of borrowed space in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and internationally. Storm has fostered partnerships with various institutions and brands who look to the Superposition program for partnership activations— launching spaces around the world.
In 2023, Storm founded the Hamptons Black Arts Council—a 501(c)3 non profit charitable organization based in New York State — which is dedicated to upholding the legacy of Black art institutions on the East End of Long Island. Storm’s development of the Hamptons Black Arts Council focuses on Advocacy, Acquisition Development, and Infrastructure and Operations. Storm’s curatorial work and community involvement through HBAC has increased awareness of Black art organizations through public programming, education, and networking; grown the contemporary collections of artwork by artists of diverse backgrounds through exhibitions and fundraising; and maintained their museum galleries and staff retention through fundraising. Recent exhibitions through The Hamptons Black Arts Council mission include Tariku Shiferaw’s first museum solo show Making Space: One of These Black Boys at the Southampton African American Museum, as well as Spectrum of Echoes, an exhibition in partnership with UBS which included works by Sanford Biggers, Tomashi Jackson, Che Lovelace and more.
Storm worked at various galleries and institutions prior to starting her own curatorial program and organizations, such as LAXART under Hamza Walker, David Lewis Gallery, Marciano Foundation, and Spruth Magers. She has curated for the Eastville Museum in Sag Harbor, Phillips New York, Phillips Los Angeles, Southampton African American Museum, UBS Global Art, and OOLITE Arts in Miami.
She is on the Advisory Board of Inversion Art, which invests in and stewards visual artists who are at an inflection point in their careers. She is also on the board of Rose House Residency, an artist incubator program in a Victorian home in Cobleskill, NY, and the Core Committee of The Circuit, a Black arts coalition. She is on the steering committee of the Art Basel Women’s Wealth Summit with Unlocked Foundation and UBS Women’s Wealth Segment, which has a mission to close the gender pay-gap across industries.
Storm was awarded the Alumni Scholarship award at The School of Visual Arts in 2018 for her thesis documentary and paper #gentrify2017 and delivered the valedictorian speech at her graduation from SVA at Radio City Music Hall, along with artists Maya Lin and Milton Glaser. She has contributed extensively as an independent writer and art critic to Cultured Magazine—most notably her profile of artist Wangechi Mutu and curator Claudia Schmuckli for their museum presentation at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Other writing contributions include TiltWest, The Brilliance of the Color Black Through the Eyes of Art Collectors, Widewalls, Galerie Lelong, and more. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, W Magazine, Hyperallergic, CULTURED, Artsy, The Miami Times and others. She was recently named in The New Generation of Black Women Gallerists by Artsy and the Dan’s Papers Power List of the East End.