From Left: Todd McDonald, Asahi Pompey, Don Peebles. BY DANIEL BROWN, JAMEL TOPPIN, JAVIER IGNACIO, FOR FORBES
The inaugural list of the most powerful, impactful and wealthiest Black Americans.
By Jabari Young, Forbes Staff
In 2009, Forbes ranked the Wealthiest Black Americans and the only billionaire on the list was Oprah Winfrey, then worth an estimated $2.7 billion.
Among the 20 entrepreneurs, moguls, athletes and entertainers on that inaugural ranking was Robert Johnson, the cofounder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), then worth $550 million, Michael Jordan (then worth an estimated $525 million), Magic Johnson ($500 million) and Shaquille O’Neal ($130 million).
Motown Records founder and music business icon Berry Gordy, 95, made the list with a fortune then estimated at $325 million as well as Bill Cosby (with a net worth of $450 million) and Ken Chenault, the first (and only) Black CEO of American Express, who was worth $125 million.
The Wealthiest Black Americans list was powerful. It was intended to keep track of success in Black America and over the years, Forbes has remained committed to celebrating the achievements of Black entrepreneurs.
In 2023, when Forbes launched the ForbesBLK platform, creating a new list of the wealthiest Black Americans was one of its main objectives—but net worth isn’t the only way to keep score of impact and influence in the community and world at large.
The inaugural ForbesBLK 50 list accomplishes this mission, combining some of the richest Black Americans with pioneering entrepreneurs, activists and innovators. Many of the names from 2009 still appear on the 2024 list—including Oprah, MJ and Magic. The BLK 50 also celebrates new wealth creators such as Fawn Weaver, the founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest, an estimated $1.1 billion whiskey brand and the largest Black-owned spirits company in the country. It also honors individuals in the financial sector and clean energy, as well as top executives ranging from the CEO of a nuclear energy company to celebrities winning in business.
As part of the list, ForbesBLK also curated a three-part video series about how to build wealth in three sectors: Real Estate, featuring Don Peebles, founder and CEO of the Peebles Corporation; Sustainability, with Josh Aviv, founder and CEO of mobile EV charging startup SparkCharge; and investing, with wisdom from Tracy Maitland, founder and president of Advent Capital Management.
Introducing the inaugural class of the ForbesBLK 50:
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Wemimo Abbey
Cofounder and Co-CEO, Esusu
Age: 32 | Location: New York, NY
Abbey is cofounder and co-CEO of Esusu, a New York fintech startup that helps renters build their credit histories and scores by reporting rent payments to credit bureaus. More than 20,000 properties currently offer Esusu’s service and some 1.8 million Americans have used Esusu to record a rent payment. The startup also recently launched a direct-to-consumer product, MyEsusu, through which consumers can build credit and monitor their credit scores. In early 2022, Esusu raised $130 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. Before founding Esusu, Abbey, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, worked as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PWC and cofounded a non-profit and a data analytics startup.
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Iman Abuzeid
Cofounder and CEO, Incredible Health
Age: 39 | Location: Austin, TX
Born in Saudi Arabia to Sudanese parents, Abuzeid studied to be a doctor at University College London before moving to the United States to become a healthcare consultant. In 2017, Abuzeid cofounded the healthcare hiring platform Incredible Health, which private investors valued at $1.65 billion in 2022. That propelled Abuzeid onto a small list of Black female founders of companies worth more than $1 billion. With an estimated net worth of $350 million based on her stake in Incredible Health, she also ranks among the top 100 Self-Made Women in America on Forbes’ 2024 list.
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Joshua Aviv
CEO, SparkCharge
Age: 32 | Location: Somerville, MA
From his dorm room at Syracuse University, Aviv founded SparkCharge, a mobile electric vehicle charger designed to eliminate “range anxiety” —or the fear EV drivers have about getting stranded because the country isn’t fully prepared to charge electric cars. SparkCharge raised $59 million from investors since 2017, according to PitchBook. Additionally, in 2020, it received a $1 million investment from billionaire Mark Cuban after appearing on Shark Tank.
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Tope Awotona
Founder and CEO, Calendly
Age: 43 | Location: Atlanta, GA
Awotona is the founder and CEO of the scheduling software startup Calendly, which private investors valued at $3 billion in 2021. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Awotona moved to Atlanta when he was 15, and studied computer science at the University of Georgia before switching majors to business and management information. After working as a salesman for several tech firms and launching a few failed startups, Awotona cashed in his 401(k) in 2013 to found Calendly because he was frustrated with the number of emails it required to schedule meetings. After bootstrapping the company for several years, in 2021 Awotona raised $350 million to further scale Calendly. Today, he is worth an estimated $1.4 billion.
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Melissa Bradley
Founder and Managing Partner, 1863 Ventures
Age: 56 | Location: Washington D.C.
Bradley is the founder and managing partner of 1863 Ventures, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit business accelerator and venture capital fund focusing on women and people of color. In 2022, Bradley’s impact landed her on the Forbes 50 Over 50 list. A graduate of Georgetown, she worked as a regulator for Black banks in the Obama Administration. In 2016, she led a summit to discover 500 Black entrepreneurs in the Washington, D.C. area, which led to the formation of 1863 Ventures. By funding a new generation of entrepreneurs, and scaling their businesses, Bradley has a goal of unlocking $100 billion in wealth creation in the Black community by 2030.
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Junior Bridgeman
Former athlete and CEO Bridgeman Foods
Age: 71 | Location: Louisville, KY
Drafted in 1975 by the Los Angeles Lakers, then traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bridgeman was one of the most successful NBA sixth men. Throughout his 12-year career, his top salary was $350,000, but after retiring in 1987 he made smart investments, acquiring more than 450 fast-food franchises, including Wendy’s, Chili’s, and Pizza Hut, before acquiring a Coca-Cola bottling company in 2016 and selling nearly half of his restaurant holdings. In September, Bridgeman’s story came full circle when he acquired a 10% stake in the Bucks, a team that Forbes estimates is worth $3.7 billion (net of debt).
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Eddie Brown
Founder, Brown Capital Management
Age: 84 | Location: Baltimore, MD
Brown is the founder and chairman of Brown Capital Management, one of the nation’s oldest Black-owned investment firms with $8.8 billion in assets under management. Known as Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price’s first Black portfolio manager, Brown grew up in the Jim Crow South and was raised by his grandparents in a home without indoor plumbing and electricity. In 1955, he moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania with his mother. Six years later, he graduated from Howard University with a degree in electrical engineering, then earned an M.B.A. from Indiana University. In 1973, Brown took a role at T. Rowe Price as a growth-stock fund manager. A decade later, he started his own firm while also becoming a regular on the PBS show Wall Street Week. Brown and his wife, Sylvia, estimate that they have donated more than $55 million to philanthropic causes throughout Baltimore.
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John Hope Bryant
CEO, Operation Hope
Age: 58 | Location: Atlanta, GA
Bryant is the CEO of Atlanta-based nonprofit Operation Hope, which helps make capitalism work for underserved communities. Raised in Los Angeles by a single mother, Bryant founded Operation Hope in 1992 with financial literacy as its core mission. Since its inception, Operation Hope estimates it has stimulated and directed more than $4 billion of economic activity into disadvantaged communities. In 2020, Bryant also secured a $130 million commitment from e-commerce company Shopify to help launch one million Black Businesses by 2030. To date, Operation Hope estimates that more than 350,000 businesses have been launched through the program.
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Calvin Butler
CEO, Exelon
Age: 55 | Location: Chicago, IL
In 2022, Butler was named the first Black president and CEO of Exelon, the nation’s largest utility company, serving more than 10 million customers in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and beyond. Having grown up in St. Louis and graduated from Bradley University in 1991, he joined Exelon in 2008 and spent 14 years in various roles within the company, including COO and CEO of Exelon’s utilities division. Today, he leads the publicly traded company with a market cap of nearly $36 billion.
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Ken Chenault
Former CEO, American Express
Age: 73 | Location: New York, NY
The chairman and CEO of American Express from 2001 to 2018, Chenault is now the chairman of the venture capital firm General Catalyst with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $750 million. After graduating from Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, Chenault went to work for the Boston-based consultancy firm Bain and Company in 1979. Two years later, he joined American Express as a strategic planner, climbing the ranks to become the company’s first (and only) Black CEO.
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Pinky Cole
Founder and CEO, Slutty Vegan
Age: 37 | Location: Atlanta, GA
The founder and CEO of the plant-based burger chain Slutty Vegan, Cole is a Forbes Next 1000 lister. After a career in television, she taught herself the restaurant business using the internet and, in 2014, opened her first restaurant—a Jamaican eatery in Harlem that caught fire after two years and eventually closed. However, two years later, Cole remerged and started Slutty Vegan from her apartment in Atlanta. Slutty Vegan now has 12 franchises throughout the country.
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Donald Cravins, Jr.
Head of Government Affairs, The Williams Companies
Age: 52 | Location: Washington D.C.
Cravins is the head of government affairs for The Williams Companies (TWC), an Oklahoma-based energy company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the role, Cravins is the liaison between TWC and federal and state lawmakers. Previously, he served as the inaugural Under Secretary for the Minority Business Development Agency and is credited with helping minority businesses secure more than $8.2 billion in capital, as well as private and government contracts.
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Alphonso David
CEO, Global Black Economic Forum
Age: 54 | Location: New York, NY
A civil rights attorney and the former president of the Human Rights Campaign, David gained national recognition while serving as co-counsel to the Atlanta-based Fearless Fund when it was fighting a lawsuit that sought to end its Strivers Grant, which supported Black women who own businesses. He is now the CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum, an organization that convenes business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and activists to advance economic strategies for Black Americans.
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Richelieu Dennis
Founder, Sundial Brands
Age: 55 | Location: New York, NY
In 1991 Dennis partnered with a college roommate and his mother to start Sundial Brands, a hair and skincare company. The brand eventually sold to Unilever in 2017 for an estimated $1.6 billion. Following the deal, Dennis founded the New Voices Fund, with a $50 million investment from Unilever and the goal of scaling the fund to $100 million to empower entrepreneurs, especially women of color. Sundial’s brands include SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, and Madam C.J. Walker Beauty, named for the early 20th century cosmetics pioneer who became the first female self-made millionaire.
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Dr. Dre
Music Producer and Cofounder, Beats By Dre
Age: 59 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
Born Andre Young, Dr. Dre cofounded groundbreaking rap group N.W.A. in the 1980s; built a chart-topping solo career and cofounded Death Row Records, which signed rap icons Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, in the 1990s; then launched Aftermath Entertainment, which boosted artists such as 50 Cent, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. His biggest move of all: cofounding headphone giant Beats Electronics in 2006 and selling it to Apple in 2014 for some $3 billion in cash and stock. Forbes estimates Dr. Dre has a net worth of $850 million.
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Thasunda Brown Duckett
CEO, TIAA
Age: 51 | Location: New York, NY
In 2021, when Thasunda Brown Duckett took the helm of TIAA, the New York-based retirement services giant with nearly $1.3 trillion in assets under management (AUM), she became the company’s first female chief executive in its 106-year history—and one of only two Black female CEOs leading one of the world’s 500 largest companies by revenue. Raised in Arlington, Texas, Duckett’s father worked as a driver for Xerox, and her mother was a tutor. She earned her degree in finance and marketing from the University of Houston and her M.B.A. from Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. From there, she served as Director of Emerging Markets for Fannie Mae and CEO for Chase Consumer Banking, before arriving at TIAA, where she has been vocal about her efforts to erase the racial retirement savings gap. Under Duckett’s leadership, TIAA has expanded its mission and launched financial education programs aimed at driving access to retirement planning for all Americans.
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Mellody Hobson
Co-CEO and President, Ariel Investments
Age: 55 | Location: Chicago, IL
Hobson is the co-CEO and president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, one of the nation’s oldest Black-owned money management firms with $14.5 billion in assets under management. Ariel founder John W. Rogers, Jr. hired her right out of Princeton, putting Hobson on notice that he planned to make her firm president by the time she was 30. Today, Forbes estimates that Hobson is worth $150 million, mostly thanks to her nearly 40% stake in Ariel. A longtime advocate for financial literacy, Hobson also sits on the boards of Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase. In 2020, Hobson and her husband, Star Wars creator George Lucas, donated an undisclosed sum to establish a new residential college at Princeton. The new college, which is being built where the former Woodrow Wilson college once stood, will be the first at the university to be named after a Black woman.
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Janice Bryant Howroyd
Founder and CEO, ActOne
Age: 72 | Location: Las Vegas, NV
In 1978, with only $1,500 to her name, Janice Bryant Howroyd founded what would become a $1.1 billion (estimated revenue) temporary staffing agency, the ActOne Group. Howroyd grew up in the segregated South in Tarboro, North Carolina, one of 11 siblings. She experienced her first memorable battle with racism when a high school history teacher taught that Black people were suited for slavery. The experience fueled Howroyd’s entrepreneurial journey. Today, ActOne has more than 2,600 employees and operates in 33 countries. Forbes estimates that Howroyd, who ranked No. 51 on the 2024 Forbes Self-Made Women list, has a net worth of $675 million.
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Cathy Hughes
Founder, Urban One
Age: 77 | Location: Silver Spring, MD
Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1947, when there were no Black-owned radios in the state and few Black DJs across the nation, Hughes set her sights on a career in radio after her mother, a professional musician, gave her a transistor radio as a girl. She landed her first local radio job in 1969 and then relocated to Washington, D.C., becoming the general sales manager for Howard University’s radio station, where she helped pioneer the “Quiet Storm” format in the 1970s. Hughes began to build her media empire, then known as Radio One, in 1980, with the purchase of her first radio station in D.C. She made history in 1999 as the first Black female founder to take a company public. Today, the media company she built—now Urban One—has television, radio, and digital properties with more than 60 broadcast stations reaching 61 million homes monthly.
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LeBron James
Athlete/Entrepreneur
Age: 39 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
LeBron James has been one of the most dominant athletes in sports and business over the past two decades. Forbes estimates James has a net worth of $1.2 billion. In 2022, he became the first active basketball player to become a billionaire, having earned more than $900 million (pretax) from endorsements and business ventures. Raised by a single mother in Akron, Ohio, James excelled in basketball and in 2003, he was selected as the first overall pick in the NBA Draft after graduating from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. Over his NBA career, James is a 20-time NBA All-Star, four-time NBA champion, and four-time NBA MVP. In 2023, he also broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record with more than 38,000 points. On the community front, James founded the I PROMISE School in 2018, which serves at-risk children in Akron and is funded by his nonprofit organization, the LeBron James Family Foundation.
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Jay-Z
Founder, Roc Nation Entertainment
Age: 55 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
Born Shawn Carter, Jay-Z was raised by a single mother in the Marcy housing projects in Brooklyn. In the sixth grade, his world changed when a teacher motivated him to discover a passion for words, he told Forbes in 2010. In 1996, at 26, he released his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Since then, he has won 24 Grammys and launched multiple companies, including the fashion brand Rocawear (which sold for $204 million in 2007) and the 40/40 nightclub in New York. He has also bought and sold ownership stakes in the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets franchise and, in 2014, purchased Armand de Brignac Champagne. By 2019, Jay-Z became a billionaire, the first hip-hop artist to reach that milestone. In 2021, his fortune grew after selling a 50% stake in Armand de Brignac to luxury conglomerate LVMH. Forbes estimates he now has a net worth of $2.5 billion.
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Earvin “Magic” Johnson
Athlete/Entrepreneur
Age: 65 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
Born in Michigan, Johnson is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, having won five NBA titles and three MVP awards in a career that was cut short in 1991 when he was diagnosed with HIV. Following his retirement, Johnson began investing, opening movie theaters and Starbucks franchises, often in Black communities. Forbes estimates Johnson has a net worth of $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 2023. He also owns equity in four sports teams, including the 2024 World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2015, he made the investment that now comprises the biggest portion in his portfolio: a majority ownership stake in insurance firm EquiTrust, whose assets under management have risen to $27 billion. Johnson was also one of the first celebrities to pitch in during the Covid-19 pandemic, offering more than $100 million in loans through EquiTrust to minority and women-owned businesses that were denied government aid.
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Sheila Johnson
Cofounder, BET Network
Age: 75 | Location: The Plains, VA
Johnson co-founded the popular cable network channel BET in 1980 with her then-husband, Robert Johnson. In 2001, Viacom bought BET for $3 billion. One of a handful of Black female billionaires, Johnson is the only one to own stakes in three professional sports teams (the NBA’s Wizards, the WNBA’s Mystics and the NHL’s Capitals). Today, she’s the founder of hospitality firm the Salamander Collection, which operates hotels and resorts in Washington, D.C., Charleston and Jamaica, among other destinations. In addition, she has founded scholarship programs and cofounded the VC firm WE Capital, which supports female-led businesses.
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Michael Jordan
Athlete/Entrepreneur
Age: 61 | Location: Jupiter, FL
Widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls and is an icon in both sports and business. While his NBA salary totaled $90 million during his career, Jordan has earned more than $2.4 billion (pre-tax) from corporate partners, including Nike, Gatorade and Hanes. In addition to becoming a co-owner of a NASCAR team in 2020, Jordan has equity in Cincoro Tequila, DraftKings and the luxury timepiece platform WatchBox. In 2023, he sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets in a deal that valued the team at $3 billion. Today, he is one of four Black Americans to appear on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $3.5 billion. On the philanthropic front, Jordan’s apparel brand committed $100 million in June 2020 toward social and economic empowerment in the Black community.
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Alex Karp
Cofounder and CEO, Palantir Technologies
Age: 57 | Location: Lyman, NH
Karp is the cofounder and CEO of Palantir Technologies, a data mining company used by the FBI, CIA, the Department of Defense and other government agencies. Forbes estimates Karp has a net worth of $7 billion—making him one of four Black Americans to make the Forbes 400. Though its usage is largely classified, Palantir’s software was reportedly used to track down Osama bin Laden in 2011. Karp was raised in Philadelphia by a Jewish clinical pediatrician father and a Black mother, who was an artist. He graduated from Haverford College and earned his law degree from Stanford in 1992, where he shared a dorm room with Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and billionaire venture capitalist. The two discussed the concept behind Palantir and founded the big data company in 2003. In 2020, Palantir went public and is now valued at more than $160 billion.
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Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Musician and Entrepreneur
Age: 43 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
Over the course of her career, Beyoncé has won more Grammy Awards than any other artist (32) and most of her estimated $760 million fortune comes from her three decades as a solo performer and as a member of Destiny’s Child. In addition to her haircare brand, Cécred, Beyoncé also launched SirDavis in 2024, a Texas whiskey brand created in partnership with Moët Hennessy.
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Gary Linnen
CEO, PeerForward
Age: 46 | Location: New York, NY
Linnen is the CEO of PeerForward, a nonprofit organization that develops programs for youth development, and has successfully placed more than 600,000 students from low-income communities into colleges or on career paths. Prior to his role at PeerForward, Linnen served as the director of tutoring and K-12 operations for Massachusetts-based tutoring and test preparation company, The Princeton Review.
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Tracy Maitland
Founder and President, Advent Capital Management
Age: 64 | Location: New York, NY
The king of convertible bonds, Maitland is the founder and President of the New York-based asset management firm Advent Capital. Forbes estimates he has a net worth of $500 million. Raised in the Bronx, Maitland is the son of a surgeon who once operated on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he was stabbed at a 1958 book signing. in 1987, years after Maitland started working at Merrill Lynch, he became head of convertible bonds at the company. Eight years later, he started Advent Capital, which now has $8.5 billion in assets under management.
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Todd McDonald
President, Liberty Bank and Trust
Age: 43 | Location: New Orleans, LA
In 2022, Todd McDonald took the reins of Liberty Bank and Trust New Orleans, the largest Black-owned bank in the country with $1 billion in assets and $948 million in deposits. McDonald’s father, Alden, cofounded the bank from a trailer in 1972 and ran it for the next 50 years. Today, Liberty Bank operates in 11 states, including Illinois, Michigan, Texas and Tennessee.
A graduate of Morehouse College, McDonald developed a fascination for banking during his junior year. He shadowed the CEO of First Bank & Trust in New Orleans, gaining insight into how a top executive can leverage a bank’s platform to build thriving communities. In 2013, McDonald earned his MBA from Northwestern and later joined his father at Liberty, where he held various roles, including vice president of corporate strategy.
Today, McDonald’s mission for the next 50 years is clear: Expand Liberty Bank to every state, totaling roughly 200 locations. “I want to get rid of denials,” McDonald tells Forbes. Instead, he says, Liberty wants to set “conditions to every single request, so we can start reestablishing confidence” in banks throughout the Black community.
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Jonathan Moody
CEO, Moody Nolan
Age: 41 | Location: Columbus, OH
In 2020, Moody succeeded his father as the CEO of Moody Nolan, the largest Black-owned architecture firm in the country. Moody joined the firm in 2011, later becoming president and expanding Moody Nolan to 12 offices nationwide. Founded in 1982 by Curt Moody (who died in October), the firm has designed public and private projects ranging from JP Morgan Chase offices to the renovation of the Cleveland Guardians’ Progressive Field to a $342-million science center at Morgan State University.
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Adebayo Ogunlesi
Chairman, co-Founder Global Infrastructure Partners
Age: 70 | Location: New York, NY
A native of Nigeria and now a U.S. citizen, Ogunlesi is a cofounder of New York-based private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). In October, GIP was acquired by BlackRock for $12.5 billion in cash and shares, with Ogunlesi remaining chairman and CEO of GIP. Today, Forbes estimates Ogunlesi—who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School—has a net worth of $1.7 billion. After clerking for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the early 1980s, Ogunlesi worked as an attorney at the New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Prior to cofounding GIP in 2006, Ogunlesi spent more than 20 years as an investment banker at Credit Suisse.
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Shaquille O’Neal
Former Athlete and Entrepreneur
Age: 52 | Location: Atlanta, GA
At 7 foot 1, Shaquille O’Neal stands above many on ForbesBLK 50 list, primarily as a basketball Hall of Famer but also as an entrepreneur who has used his celebrity to build a robust portfolio of fast-food franchises and other businesses. A New Jersey native, O’Neal attended Louisiana State University and had a nearly two-decade run in the NBA after being drafted by the Orlando Magic in 1992. In addition to four NBA championships and a lucrative career as an NBA analyst, O’Neal is an indefatigable advertising pitchman and is a national spokesperson for the Boys and Girls Club of America.
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Don Peebles
Founder and CEO, Peebles Corporation
Age: 64 | Miami, FL
Peebles is founder and CEO of Peebles Corporation, one of the largest Black-owned real estate development companies in the country. The son of an auto mechanic, Peebles was raised in Detroit and Washington D.C. by his mother, a secretary turned real estate broker. In 1983, he founded the Peebles Corporation, running the company while also working for then-Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry in the city’s property tax office.
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Tyler Perry
Founder, Tyler Perry Studios
Age: 55 | Location: Atlanta, GA
A comedian at heart, it wasn’t until Tyler Perry was 28 that he found success with his traveling live theater performances, portraying the characters inspired by his family and upbringing in the South, most famously his iconic character Madea. Today, long after fighting to launch his career and being “poor as hell,” as he told Forbes in 2020, Perry has built a platform as the second highest-paid TV showrunner and he achieved billionaire status in 2020. Most of his wealth comes from his ownership of the content he has created, which he considers “non-negotiable.” He also owns a quarter of the streaming platform BET+ and a 330-acre studio in Atlanta where most of his movies and TV shows are filmed.
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Asahi Pompey
Global Head of Corporate Engagement and President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation
Age: 52 | Location: New York, NY
Pompey is the highest-ranking Black person at Goldman Sachs, overseeing the bank’s annual $2 billion investments in philanthropic and community initiatives as the president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Among its initiatives is One Million Black Women, a $10 billion investment aimed at driving economic opportunity for a million Black women by 2030.
Born in Guyana, Pompey moved to Brooklyn, New York at age 10, and credits her parents—her father was a schoolteacher, and her mother an accounts clerk—for imbuing her with grit and resilience. “I remember my dad used to tell me, ‘You’re as good as, or better, than anyone else in that room,’” Pompey tells Forbes. As a senior in high school, she won a debate contest that awarded a scholarship and summer job working at the former Chemical Bank in New York. In 1994, she graduated from Swarthmore and then earned a law degree from Columbia.
In 2006, Pompey joined Goldman Sachs as managing director and was named a partner in 2018. In addition to overseeing Goldman’s 10,000 Women initiative, she also leads its 10,000 Small Businesses, designed to teach enterprise business economics in urban and rural communities. Pompey added a new responsibility to her vast roster this in December: Chairwoman of Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group. “These programs are engines of economic growth and opportunity,” she says.
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Shonda Rhimes
Founder, Shondaland
Age: 54 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
The Chicago-born Rhimes is one of the most celebrated TV showrunners in history, the first woman to create three shows with more than 100 episodes. Her hit ABC shows Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal generated more than $2 billion for the network. Rhimes also founded Shondaland, which produced How to Get Away with Murder. In 2017, she signed a five-year deal—worth at least $100 million—with Netflix, which led to her next hit show, Bridgerton. Rhimes is among the 10 highest-paid TV showrunners, having earned an estimated $58 million (pretax) during the year ended September 1, 2024.
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Rihanna
Musician and Founder, Fenty Beauty
Age: 36 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
Rihanna may have become famous as a musician, but she became a billionaire thanks to her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty, co-owned with the French luxury conglomerate LVMH. Born Robyn Fenty in Barbados—Rihanna is her middle name—she also founded a lingerie brand called Savage x Fenty and created a nonprofit, the Clara Lionel Foundation, which has donated millions to climate-focused causes since its inception in 2012.
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John W. Rogers Jr
Founder and co-CEO, Ariel Investments
Age: 66 | Location: Chicago, IL
In 1983, three years after graduating from Princeton, John Rogers founded Ariel Investments, which specializes in small- and mid-cap stocks. The son of a Tuskegee Airman who later became a judge, his mother was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School. Rogers is also the great-grandson of one of the architects of Greenwood, the prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was destroyed by a white riot in 1921. More than a century later, Ariel Investments is one of the nation’s most prominent Black-owned investment firms, and Rogers now has a net worth estimated at $350 million. Rogers and his co-CEO, Mellody Hobson, lead Project Black, a $1.45 billion Ariel Investments fund intended to buy existing mid-size businesses and install Black and Latino executives who can build them into top-tier suppliers to the country’s largest companies.
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Michael B. Russell, Sr.
CEO, H.J. Russell & Company
Age: 59 | Location: Atlanta, GA
Russell is the CEO of H.J. Russell & Company, a Black-owned real estate developer in Atlanta that was founded by his father in 1952. The company has developed significant projects, including the construction of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons Mercedes-Benz stadium and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, as well as airports, retail space, and residential homes. In 2003, he took over as CEO overseeing offices in cities including Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles.
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Michael D. Smith
CEO, AmeriCorps
Age: 45 | Location: Washington D.C.
Since 2021, Smith has been the CEO of AmeriCorps, the federal agency responsible for national service and volunteerism. In addition to managing a budget of nearly $1.5 billion, Smith also oversees $800 million in financial and human resources grants each year. A native of Massachusetts, he previously served as a special assistant in the Obama Administration.
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Robert F. Smith
Founder and CEO, Vista Equity Partners
Age: 62 | Location: Austin, TX
Raised in Colorado, Robert Smith became fascinated with computers while attending Denver’s East High School. After earning a degree in chemical engineering from Cornell in 1985, he worked at Goodyear Tire and Kraft General Foods, before pursuing an M.B.A. at Columbia University. In 2000, he founded Vista Equity Partners, the largest Black-owned private equity firm in the United States with more than 700 employees and $100 billion in assets under management. With an estimated net worth today of $10.8 billion, ranking 88th on the Forbes 400, Smith became the first Black American to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment to donate the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes. During a 2019 commencement address, Smith announced that he would pay off the student loans ofthe entire graduating class of Morehouse College. The following year, Smith unveiled the 2% Solution, a plan that calls for U.S. companies to donate 2% of profits over a decade into Black and other underserved communities that have been affected by the racial wealth gap.
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Artis Stevens
CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Age: 51 | Location: Atlanta, GA
Stevens is the president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the nonprofit organization with a 120-year history of positively impacting youth through mentorship. A graduate of the University of Georgia who also has a Masters of Public Administration from Valdosta State University, Stevens previously held leadership positions at the National 4-H Council and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
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David Steward
CoFounder and Chairman, World Wide Technology
Age: 73 | Location: St. Louis, MO
The richest Black American—with an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion—David Steward grew up in the segregated South with seven siblings and a father who worked as a mechanic, janitor and a trash collector. After graduating from Central Missouri State University in 1973, he worked in sales for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific and Federal Express, where he was named salesman of the year in 1981. Nine years later, he cofounded World Wide Technology, which provides IT solutions for global companies, including Citi and Verizon. Today, WWT has more than 10,000 employees and $20 billion in annual revenue. In 2018, he donated $1.3 million to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to establish the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies.
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Fawn Weaver
Founder and CEO, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey
Age: 48 | Location: Shelbyville, TN
Fawn Weaver is the founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest, the most successful Black-owned liquor company in the United States, which Forbes values at $1.1 billion. Weaver’s ownership stake gives her an estimated net worth of $480 million and makes her one of the richest self-made women in America. A Los Angeles native, she left home at 15, eventually dropping out of high school and living in housing projects. After working in public relations, she started her own firm before shifting to a career in real estate and becoming a bestselling author. In 2016, she found her purpose when she read the story of Nathan “Nearest” Green, an enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. That year, she and her husband, Keith, took a trip to Lynchburg, Tennessee and purchased a 300-acre farm for $900,000 with a dream of starting a distillery in Green’s honor. Since 2017, she has become one of the largest Black landowners in Tennessee, with more than 800 acres shared with her husband. Weaver has shunned venture capital and private equity funding in favor of smaller investments, structuring deals to maintain her control of the company.
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Russell Westbrook
Athlete/Entrepreneur
Age: 36 | Location: Los Angeles, CA
A nine-time NBA All-Star and the league’s MVP in 2017, Westbrook is also a serial entrepreneur with a net worth of $375 million, Forbes estimates. His venture capital company, Russell Westbrook Enterprises has equity stakes in the spring water brand Flow and the muscle recovery company Hyperice. Westbrook’s Why Not? Foundation also provides educational and workforce development training to underserved communities.
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Serena Williams
Former Athlete and Entrepreneur
Age: 43 | Location: Jupiter, FL
When Serena Williams retired from tennis in 2022, she had won 23 Grand Slam singles titles (the second most in the Open era and the third most of all time) and was the highest-paid female athlete in the world. With a net worth of $340 million, she is one of America’s richest self-made women. In addition to having several partnerships with brands, Williams launched a VC firm, Serena Ventures, in 2014 that focuses on female entrepreneurs and founders from underrepresented groups.
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Oprah Winfrey
Entrepreneur and Founder, Oprah Winfrey Network
Age: 70 | Location: Chicago, IL
Oprah Winfrey got her start on radio at 17 after landing a job by winning a local Nashville-based “Miss Fire Prevention Contest” in 1971. Two years later, she became the youngest and first Black anchor at a local TV station and began her career in television news. In 1984, she relocated to Chicago to host a local talk show and two years after that, it was rebranded and taken national as The Oprah Winfrey Show. The program ran for 25 years and was the highest-rated daytime talk show in history, winning 18 Daytime Emmy Awards. Near total ownership of the show through her production company, Harpo, also led to her becoming one of the wealthiest self-made women in America. In addition to an acting and producing career, Winfrey launched a book club and won several of the country’s highest honors, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2011, she founded the Oprah Winfrey Network, growing her media empire to span television, print and digital, and later sold most of her 50% stake to her joint venture partner,Warner Bros. Discovery, in 2017 and 2020. Today, Forbes estimates that Winfrey is worth $3 billion.
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Chris Womack
President and CEO, The Southern Company
Age: 65 | Location: Atlanta, GA
In March 2023, Womack was named the first Black CEO of The Southern Company, a $90 billion (market cap) utilities company that provides energy throughout the Southeast. The son of an Alabama school teacher, Womack earned a political science degree from Western Michigan University in 1979 before working on Capitol Hill as legislative aide for then-U.S. Congressman Leon Panetta. In 1988, he joined The Southern Company and has served in various roles including CEO of subsidiary company, Georgia Power. Today, Womack is overseeing two newly constructed nuclear power plants, the first to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years.
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Tiger Woods
Athlete and Entrepreneur
Age: 48 | Location: Jupiter Island, FL
One of two professional athletes to become a billionaire while still playing—the other is LeBron James—Tiger Woods is one of golf’s all-time greats. Over the course of his career, he has won 15 major championships (second only to Jack Nicklaus), 82 PGA Tour wins (tied for first with Sam Snead) and has won more prize money ($122 million) than any player in PGA history. But most of his wealth—Forbes estimates he is worth $1.3 billion—comes from his lucrative brand deals, most famously Nike.
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Dr. Kneeland Youngblood
Founder and Managing Partner, Pharos Capital Group
Age: 69 | Location: Dallas, TX
Youngblood is the founder of Pharos Capital Group, a Dallas- and Nashville-based private equity firm that invests in middle-market healthcare companies. Founded in 1998, the firm has 58 companies in its portfolio and $1 billion in assets under management. A Houston native, Youngblood earned a B.A. in politics from Princeton and M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and went on to practice emergency room medicine at Baylor University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Plano, Texas. A descendant of freed slaves, Youngblood sued crude oil producer ConocoPhillips for $900 million, claiming the company ignored his family’s claim to oil-rich land in Texas.
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METHODOLOGY
To select the inaugural ForbesBLK 50, we sought input from Goldman Sachs, investment firm Revolution, and public affairs agency Global Strategy Group, and public organizations, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Black Innovation Alliance, and Atlanta Black Chambers. We used public nominations, and ForbesBLK members and advisors voted on a selection of semifinalists.
Among the criteria used to make the final selections were social impact, social media presence, company status, title/position, and net worth. ForbesBLK used Forbes wealth data to determine the net worth of individuals, as well as public and third-party financial data, and insight from financial analysts.
Forbes staff Jeff Kauflin, Stephen Pastis, Maneet Ahuja, Ali Jackson-Jolley are contributing writers of the ForbesBLK list.
