Black Management Association Conference celebrates 40 years of impact
By Louis R. Carlozo
The 40th Annual Black Management Conference, held Oct. 24 at the Kellogg School of Management Global Hub, centered on the theme The Marathon Continues. Speakers discussed the headwinds today’s “runners” still face, while providing stories of how each has persevered through grit and relentless effort.
“It’s a celebration of entrepreneurship and the long road ahead,” said Alfred Jackson ’27 MBA co-leader of the conference. "There’s decades and decades of work that our parents and grandparents and ancestors put in to make us the people we are today.”
Since the late 1980s, the BMA Conference has brought together students, alumni, faculty and executives to celebrate belonging and champion equity in the business world; more than 150 people attended this year’s event.
In her opening remarks, Dean Francesca Cornelli noted the connection between the speakers — all embodiments of success in their respective fields — and Kellogg, where they received their business education.
“Thinking about life as a marathon is also a great way to think about a Kellogg education,” Cornelli said. “It takes endurance, it takes persistence and it takes people running alongside you. You have to learn to run your own race, but you don’t run it alone.”
In the case of 1st Congressional District Rep. Jonathan Jackson '91 MBA (D-Ill.), the notion of togetherness took on a double meaning.
“I just absolutely love Northwestern, it has meant the world to me,” said Jackson. “I met my wife at Kellogg, my son graduated here two years ago.”
In his remarks, made just moments before embarking on a nationwide campaign swing for Democratic congressional candidates, Jackson did not shy from the “institutional environment” of today.
“You’re going to see so much more of this as you matriculate,” Jackson said. “The important question for the Class of 2027 is who will support first-generation business students. … So stay close to your classmates. Kellogg is so much more than just a building.”
To reinforce the marathon theme, Jackson — in the tradition of his father, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson — traced a long line of history that included Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson and Colin Powell, among others. He encouraged attendees to remember that no matter the current political climate, they stood as inheritors of a proud cultural and political tradition centered on positive change amidst poignant challenge.
One father-son panel proved a conference highlight. JR Reynolds ’23 MBA interviewed Jim Reynolds Jr. ’82 MBA about the struggles and triumphs that came with building Loop Capital Markets LLC. Today, Loop Capital ranks as the largest black-owned investment bank in the U.S., the elder Reynolds serving as founder, chairman and CEO.
“When we started with six folding chairs and six tables, I still knew it was going to be great,” Reynolds recalled. Back in 1997, his business functioned as a Chicago municipal bond firm. Today, Loop Capital provides investment banking, brokerage and advisory services — with $7 trillion in debt and equity underwriting mandates.
As the younger Reynolds interviewed his father, he couldn’t stop beaming, an obvious sign of professional and family pride. As much as Jim Reynolds talked to the audience, he also seemed to offer words of encouragement to JR, who serves as an associate product manager at Northern Trust.
“Take the opportunities you have at Kellogg and off campus to focus on the things you want to do,” he said. “As you come out of Kellogg you want to lay a foundation for a growth oriented future so that your youth, your drive, your ambition can lay a path for you.”
Having started an infrastructure fund with Magic Johnson, Jim Reynolds spoke of his current success with soft-spoken modesty and dry wit. “If this were a football game, we’re still in the second quarter,” he noted. “We still have an amazing amount of growth to do, which is what we’re doing and plan to keep doing. And you know if you’re a football fan, the game doesn't really get good until the fourth quarter.”
For attendees, the conference provided an opportunity for reflection as well as networking and community building.
Scynthea Ratliff, chief product office at Uplift All, a personal and professional development platform, resonated with the conference theme on a life-journey level. “I’m a first-generation college graduate but it’s not that my parents didn’t want to go to school,” Ratliff said. “The opportunity just wasn’t there for them.”
Having just graduated the school’s C-Suite Program in Digital Transformation and AI, Ratliff is determined not just to run the race in strong fashion, but also to pass the baton to those waiting for their shot.
“Now I work on boards mentoring youth through technology and STEM,“ said Ratliff, who serves with Mentoring Youth Through Technology, a Chicago-area nonprofit. “I’m trying to bring that opportunity to the next generation.”
The daylong conference ended with a reception at the Obama Presidential Center. Attendees enjoyed exclusive access to the museum and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the conference in the Nelson Mandela Sky Room, which overlooks the city.