Meet the HBCU Alumni Leading Some of America's Biggest Brands
When people think of HBCU alumni, names like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Vice President Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, and Toni Morrison often come to mind. HBCUs have long been recognized for producing influential leaders in politics, entertainment, education, and public service.
But boardrooms deserve to be part of that conversation, too.
Across industries, HBCU alumni are leading major companies, launching innovative businesses, and serving as CEOs of organizations that impact millions of people every day. Some are household names. Others are transforming their industries more quietly. Together, they demonstrate what HBCUs have always done best: prepare students to lead.
Here are five HBCU graduates whose work is shaping the future of business.
New Crunch Fitness CEO Chequan Lewis (credit: Crunch Fitness)
Chequan Lewis - CEO, Crunch Fitness
Chequan Lewis didn't set out to become the CEO of one of the world's fastest-growing fitness brands.
After graduating from Howard University with degrees in political science and economics, Lewis earned a law degree from Harvard and began practicing corporate law. But he soon realized he wanted to be closer to the decisions shaping a business rather than simply advising it.
"I still had this fire burning," Lewis later reflected on the Aspire to Inspire podcast, describing his desire to move from the outside of the business to "the heart of the action."
That realization changed the course of his career.
Lewis joined Pizza Hut U.S., where he spent nearly eight years rising through the ranks to become the company's first Chief Equity Officer and later Chief Operating Officer. In 2024, he brought that leadership experience to Crunch Fitness as president. Just two years later, he was named CEO, taking the helm of a global brand with more than 550 locations and 3.5 million members worldwide.
Throughout that journey, Lewis has remained grounded in a lesson his family taught him early in life: do all that I can with all that I've been given. Today, he leads Crunch Fitness with that same philosophy, helping build a company centered on empowering people to become the best version of themselves.
Credit: glossangelespod
Melissa Butler - Founder & CEO, The Lip Bar
Melissa Butler didn't build one of America's fastest-growing beauty brands because everyone believed in her. She built it because she believed in herself.
After graduating from Florida A&M University, Butler launched a successful career on Wall Street. But every trip down the beauty aisle left her asking the same question: Why weren't bold, high-quality lip colors being created with women of color in mind?
So she started making them herself.
What began in her kitchen eventually became The Lip Bar, a beauty company built on the belief that makeup should celebrate, not exclude, the women wearing it.
Three years into the business, Butler appeared on Shark Tank seeking an investment. Instead, she was told established beauty companies would crush her before she ever had a chance to grow.
But Butler didn't start The Lip Bar to impress investors.
"I didn't start my business for them," she later reflected. "So I wasn't going to end it for them."
Today, The Lip Bar is sold in Target stores nationwide and has become one of the country's most recognizable Black-owned beauty brands. Butler often credits Florida A&M University for preparing her for entrepreneurship, describing FAMU as a place that instilled resilience, discipline, and the confidence to compete.
For Melissa Butler, those lessons became more than a mindset.
They became the foundation of a company that refused to take no for an answer.
Credit: Business Insider
Ryan Glover - Co-Founder & Chairman, Greenwood
Ryan Glover has spent his career building businesses that expand opportunity.
After graduating from Howard University with a degree in accounting, Glover entered the entertainment industry, co-founding Noontime Records before launching Bounce TV in 2011, the nation's first broadcast television network created specifically for African American audiences. The network's success proved there was both an audience and a demand for media created with Black viewers in mind.
But Glover saw another opportunity to make an impact.
In 2020, he co-founded Greenwood, a digital banking platform inspired by Tulsa's historic Black Wall Street and designed to help close the racial wealth gap by expanding access to financial tools and resources for Black and Latino communities.
The response was immediate. Greenwood attracted more than 500,000 sign-ups within its first year and continues to grow by combining technology with a mission rooted in economic empowerment.
Glover's career is a reminder that entrepreneurship isn't simply about building successful companies. At its best, it's about creating institutions that leave communities stronger than you found them.
via Ebony
Latriece Watkins - President & CEO, Sam's Club
Nearly three decades after joining Walmart as a real estate intern, Latriece Watkins was named President and CEO of Sam's Club.
After graduating from Spelman College and earning her law degree from the University of Arkansas, Watkins built her career one opportunity at a time, taking on leadership roles across merchandising, operations, and strategy while developing an unmatched understanding of one of the world's largest retailers.
Today, she leads a business generating approximately $96 billion in annual revenue with more than 600 locations across the United States.
Watkins has often said that curiosity—not the pursuit of titles—guided her career. A conversation with former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon encouraged her to move closer to the company's core retail operations, a decision that ultimately shaped her path to the executive suite.
Just months after becoming CEO, Fortune named Watkins one of the Most Powerful Women in Business, recognizing the steady leadership that carried her from intern to one of corporate America's most influential executives.
Her journey is a reminder that leadership isn't always defined by the speed of the climb. Sometimes it's built one opportunity, one lesson, and one promotion at a time.
via AppleOne blog
Janice Bryant Howroyd - Founder & CEO, The ActOne Group
North Carolina A&T State University
When Janice Bryant Howroyd arrived in Los Angeles in 1976, she had $1,500 in her pocket and a simple goal: find work.
Instead, she found a problem.
After struggling to find an employment agency that treated job seekers with dignity and respect, Howroyd imagined what a better experience could look like. She believed that connecting people with meaningful work wasn't simply about filling positions. It was about recognizing potential and creating opportunities that could change lives.
That belief became The ActOne Group.
Working from a small office with little more than a phone, a fax machine, and an unwavering sense of purpose, Howroyd built a staffing company around one guiding principle: the applicant is the center of our universe.
That philosophy transformed ActOne into the largest privately held, minority woman-owned workforce solutions company in the United States. Along the way, Howroyd became the first Black woman to own and operate a billion-dollar business, proving that putting people first can also be an extraordinary business strategy.
Looking back on her journey, she often shares one piece of advice:
"Never compromise who you are personally to become who you wish to become professionally."
It's a philosophy that has shaped not only her remarkable career but also the legacy she's built for generations of entrepreneurs to follow.
The HBCU Difference
These five leaders work in five industries and have taken five completely different paths.
But they all have one thing in common.
Each of these executives graduated from an HBCU that challenged them to think critically, lead with confidence, and create opportunities not only for themselves but also for the communities they serve.
Some built billion-dollar companies. Others transformed global brands. Some are reimagining beauty, fitness, finance, retail, and workforce development. All of them are proof that HBCUs don't simply produce graduates—they produce founders, innovators, and leaders whose influence reaches far beyond campus.
The next time someone asks what HBCU graduates go on to do, point them here.
The answer isn't just found in classrooms. It's found in boardrooms, businesses, and brands that are shaping the future.
Love and Leggings,
Bibi
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bibi Mama is a first generation Beninese-American actress born and raised in Mansfield, CT. Growing up she watched her father, an English professor and author, continue the Yoruba oral tradition through storytelling, which inspired her. She earned her B.F.A. from Howard University and recently finished her MFA at the Old Globe/University of San Diego MFA Graduate Acting Program.