WASHINGTON – The second annual Entrepreneurship Festival, hosted by Howard University and the PNC National Entrepreneurship Center, concluded with a fireside chat. James LeeJohn H. Johnson Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, and Tina Biles Williamsfounder, CEO and CIO of Xponance, a $17 billion asset management and investment firm. As founders of successful companies, the two shared the secrets to success and effective leadership.
Lee, the former CEO of plus-size women’s clothing brand Ashley Stewart, transformed the company from the brink of bankruptcy into a retail powerhouse. Since 2021, Lee has been teaching “The Life, Money, and Joy System” at the Cathy Hughes School of Communication. During the discussion, she shared insights from her book, “Red Helicopter – A Fable for Our Times: Leading Change with Kindness (Plus a Little Math),” which will be released on April 9.
“In my classes, I remind my students that the business world is like running a lemonade stand when you’re 10 years old,” Lee says. “When you open a lemonade stand, everyone has a great idea, but the investment is in the people, the execution, and the relationships. Your track record in life is often more important than your career track record.”
Williams’ experiences as a Jamaican immigrant working in the financial industry in the 1990s informed his perspective on leadership and sparked the idea for Xponance. With the tagline “Transforming Access to Alpha,” Xponance was founded to empower people of color and women in the financial industry. Today, Xponance is the largest diversely-owned asset management firm in the United States.
“If you start a business with an idea to improve people’s lives, not just to make money, your idea has a good chance of succeeding, and the degree you earn and the relationships you build will increase your ability to execute on your idea,” Williams says. “For Howard University students, the people in your classes are the foundation of your community, the people who will support you throughout your entrepreneurial journey.”
At the end of the program, the Center awarded the winners of the 5th HU Empower Business Pitch Competition. Oluwaseun AdeyeyeA sophomore electrical engineering major from Baltimore, Maryland, Jason JohnsonA sophomore mechanical engineering major from Silver Spring, Md. The two are founders of Tree Technologies.
“As a first-generation American, it was very impactful for me to hear the speakers. It was important for me to hear Mr. Lee talk about his lemonade stand because now I have the biggest lemonade stand I could ever have,” Adeyeye said. “I want to make sure that while I’m running this business, I always uphold my moral values. We always want to put students first and stay focused on improving the lives of others.”
Adeyeye and Johnson secured $20,000 in funding for their company. The students developed the Tree app, a one-stop shop for Howard University students. The app will include information on study locations, dining options, campus news, and an AI bot to answer students’ questions about navigating the campus. The founders plan to use the funding to secure Amazon Web Services and legal considerations.
“Our vision for the Tree app is to be on every college or university, and we want to start locally and then expand to HBCUs because we’ve spoken to students at other universities and know they face similar challenges to us navigating campus,” Johnson said. “Preparing for this year’s pitch competition has given us firsthand insight into how much work it takes to run a business.”
The PNC National Center also recognized the HBCU Startup Scholars, a group of HBCU student entrepreneurs from across the United States.
###
About Howard University
Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private research university comprised of 14 schools and colleges. Students pursue more than 140 programs of study leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The university is committed to excellence in truth and service and has produced three Schwarzman Scholars, four Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 12 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright Scholars. Howard University has also produced more African-American doctoral recipients on its campus than any other university in the United States. For more information about Howard University, visit www.howard.edu.
