What do the world’s most successful business leaders and communicators have in common? Many discovered their passions at a young age and designed careers that aligned with their innate interests and abilities. In honor of Black History Month, here’s a look at how some of the world’s most accomplished Black business leaders and communicators found their way and what drives them to relentlessly pursue excellence.
Rosalind “Roz” Brewer has always loved getting behind difficult problems. Today, the trailblazing executive identifies solutions and opportunities for innovation at a Dow 30 Company: Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Her journey from research scientist to fearless corporate change-maker reflects the work ethic she witnessed as a child. Roz grew up in Detroit, the youngest of five children, where both her parents worked in the automobile industry. That blue-collar background pushed her to gear up instead of back down in the face of challenges. She started her career as a scientific research technician at Kimberly-Clark after studying chemistry at Spelman College, the historically Black women’s learning institute in Atlanta, Georgia. After 20 years, she ran manufacturing and operations.
From there, she shifted industries, and her trajectory took off. She stepped into a vice president role at Walmart, and six years later, she was leading half the company’s U.S. locations. Then she accepted her first CEO appointment, taking the helm at Sam’s Club. Leaders at Starbucks realized her potential when she joined the company’s board of directors and quickly hired her as COO in an effort to boost revenues and execute a complex digital overhaul. The timing of her most recent move to the CEO of Walgreens lined up with the organization’s aim to distribute COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. It was exactly the kind of challenge that drives her, she said, and it opened up the possibility to have an impact on a global scale. “I really wanted to be part of something so much bigger than myself.”
Robert Reffkin grew up in a single-parent household in Berkeley, California, and found support and inspiration at home. His mother built a life for the two of them by opening a preschool in a house she purchased after a cross-country move.
They didn’t have much money then, but they had their home—and they always had big aspirations. In fact, when his mom would tuck him into bed at night, she’d tell him to have “big dreams” instead of sweet dreams.
“I saw her as an entrepreneur my entire life,” he said. “She inspired me to create, build, and dream.”
Now, as the founder and CEO of the multibillion-dollar real estate technology platform Compass, Robert helps others make their dreams of homeownership come true by removing barriers and making real estate transactions a smoother process for everyone involved: buyers, sellers, renters, and agents.
Raised in the Bronx, New York, Neil deGrasse Tyson found his lifelong fascination at age nine after visiting the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Beckoned by the mysteries of the night sky, Neil returned to the planetarium as a high school student. He soaked up astronomy courses in what he’s called his most formative period and delivered his first lectures at age 15. Mark Chartrand III, the then planetarium director, became his first intellectual role model and shaped how the future astrophysicist and acclaimed communicator shared the story of the universe.
Counted as one of the most prominent and beloved personalities in science, Neil is now the director of the Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. The cosmic perspective that first captured his imagination still drives him today as he advocates for science literacy and scientific thinking.
A proud “military brat,” Robin Roberts spent part of her childhood exploring the world with her parents, both of whom were the first in their families to attend college. She was the youngest of four children and grew up loving the competition and excitement of sports. While she was a women’s basketball standout at Southeastern Louisiana University, professional sports weren’t in the cards. She knew being a sportscaster would get her closest to the action, but she also knew she had a long road ahead of her.
Robin launched her journalism career with a part-time job as a weekend sports anchor at WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The pay wasn’t great, but it was her goal to “dream big but focus small,” so she declined a better-paying full-time job elsewhere because it was in news, not sports.
A few years later, she turned down a dream job at ESPN because she didn’t feel ready—and she knew the standards for a Black female reporter would be sky high. So that’s the direction she set her sights on.
“I have known all of my life that, because of who I am and what I look like, my margin of error is less than someone who doesn’t look like me, who isn’t a Black woman,” she said.
Robin focused on refining her skills as a sports anchor and reporter at WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. When ESPN came calling again in 1990, she accepted enthusiastically. She became the first female African American sports journalist at the network.
Over the past 30 years, Robin has continued to break ground and hone her craft. Under her leadership as co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America, the show has collected five Emmy Awards. Her Disney+ talk show, Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts, which centers on groundbreaking women, garnered an Emmy in 2022.
Elaine Welteroth had mastered the art of the career pivot and rose as one of the most dynamic and admired women in media—crowned the “epitome of Black girl magic,” when she became editor of Teen Vogue at 29.
As a kid, her family celebrated Black culture and taught her that her heritage should be a source of pride. With a loving family behind her, Elaine boldly launched into a journalism career, breaking into the publishing world by writing directly to the editor in chief of Ebony magazine and requesting an informational interview. Her tenacity made her a standout in every role, from Ebony to Glamour magazine. In 2012, she became the first African-American Beauty & Health Director at Teen Vogue. Four years later, she was named the publication’s editor in chief.
But she didn’t stop there. “Sometimes when you reach the mountaintop, you realize there are new horizons that come into view that you want to pursue,” she said.
She became the author of a New York Times bestselling book, a talk show host, a judge on Project Runway, a podcast host, and more. Her approach has been to design a career that optimizes her strengths. According to Elaine, fear is part of the process: “We have to figure out how to dance with fear and not allow it to dictate where we go.”
Watch our class on Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love for free during Black History Month here.
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