MBE Power Lunch Series Concludes at Milton’s Grill
Black business icons to be featured, including Ackneil Muldrow, Chief Ed Fox, Joy Bramble
Arnold Jolivet, Wayne Frazier Also Expected
(BALTIMORE - April 30, 2008) - Today at 12 noon, the fifth and final MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) Power Lunch will take place in the heart of downtown Baltimore at Milton’s Grill, 336 N. Charles Street. The black-owned restaurant has been the stage for the “Wednesdays in April” business series designed by BMORENEWS.com to promote local businesses and provide networking opportunities with business professionals from across the state of Maryland.
“Name something that is not made in China,” said Fox. “Until one understands globalization and its effects on businesses across the globe, one cannot comprehend the meaning of true economics.”
Today’s featured speakers include Joy Bramble, publisher of The Baltimore Times Newspapers, marketing icon Ackneil Muldrow, the MTA’s Paula Cullings - a longtime public servant and friend to minority businesses both in Baltimore and across the state, and Chief Ed Fox, the dapper entrepreneur who has just returned from China.
Chief Ed Fox
“We have to understand that we just can’t make money the same old way,” said Fox in a phone interview yesterday.
Founder of Central Security Investigations Agency, Fox is a former top cop in Baltimore City and a former military man who earned a heap of medals during his service career. In addition to running one of the state’s largest security firms, he also has his hand in a multitude of projects in China. Among them, he is helping provide security for the Summer Olympics and he is creating a number of partnerships between China and US businesses.
“Take hair care products, for example,” said Fox. “The only way you can win is to go to where the products are being made: China.”
Fox was alluding to a special feature first presented on BMORENEWS.com last year that highlighted the efforts of the Black Owned Beauty Supply Association (www.BOBSA.org). Birthed out of California by Sam Ennon and others, BOBSA’s aim is to help direct “a massive and positive shift in economic power within the $9 billion black hair care industry.”
Further analysis by BMORENEWS demonstrated that in all of Baltimore and Baltimore County, there is only one black-owned beauty supply store. Given that blacks support the beauty industry like no other ethnic group - and considering the amount of money blacks spend on items such as weaves, to have only one black owned beauty supply store seems ludicrous.
One of Fox’s goal of pointing to China is to help empower local business owners.
“Name something that is not made in China,” said Fox. “Until one understands globalization and its effects on businesses across the globe, one cannot comprehend the meaning of true economics.”
Ackneil Muldrow
Known across the US, Ackneil Muldrow is one of the most astute business professionals one could ever meet. Throughout his career, he has built a network of alliances - particularly with successful African Americans.
One entity he is known for leading is the Baltimore Marketing Assocation (BMA). First organized in October of 1967, the BMA “has sought to promote and exchange information and participate in programs and activities that act to enhance careers, educational development and entrepreneurial opportunities for minorities. (www.baltimoremarketingassociation.org).”
Joy Bramble
When it comes to the newspaper business, nobody works as hard or as smart as Joy Bramble. As the publisher of several community newspapers in Maryland, including The Baltimore Times (www.btimes.com), Bramble also founded Times Community Services (TCS), Inc., a philanthropic foundation of The Baltimore Times Newspapers where she is chair of the Board of Directors. Over the past two decades, her newspaper empire has brought tons of “positive news about positive people” to the forefront. Further, she has used her business acumen to assist emerging businesses, including www.BMORENEWS.com.
Hence, this final MBE Power Lunch is set to be a real winner. Moderating today’s lunch is Paula Cullings of the MTA. Further, the event may also get two special guests who will be returning from Annapolis: Arnold Jolivet and Wayne Frazier. If their schedules permit, the should return in time to give attendees an update on MBE progress in Maryland from a regional perspective. Both men are among the leaders in MBE advocacy in Maryland.
Admission to the event is $20 and includes a full lunch cooked exclusively by the chef at Milton’s Grill. FMI or to RSVP to the MBE Power Lunch, call Phenomenal Events and ask for Michelle Newby-Josie at 1.443.223.8759 or via email: contact@phenomenal-events.com.
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