Series 4: Technology in the Black Community

The Series is on the Second Thursday of Every Month at 5 pm PT,

Starting September 8, 2022 and ends January 12, 2023

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

- Oprah Winfrey

  • Hill Harper

    “THE PATH FOR BLACK INVENTORS”

  • Ralonda Johnson

    “VENTURE CAPITAL’S IMPACT ON BLACK WEALTH”

  • Keith Price

    “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE AREN’T AT THE TABLE”

  • James A. Samuel Jr.

    “USING TECH TO PROTECT BLACK LIVES”

  • Vernell Hill

    “LEADERSHIP AS A WAY TO EXPAND BLACK TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES”

HILL HARPER

“THE PATH FOR BLACK INVENTORS”

September 8, 2022 @ 5pm PT

Hill Harper is a humanitarian, an award-winning actor, best-selling author, entrepreneur, health and wellness ambassador/educator and philanthropist. Harper is perhaps most recognizable for his starring role in the CBS hit television drama CSI: NY where he played eccentric Dr. Sheldon Hawkes from 2004 to 2013 for which Harper won three NAACP Image Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

In addition to his performing career, Harper has authored four New York Times bestsellers: Letters to a Young Brother, Letters to a Young Sister, The Conversation, and The Wealth Cure which chronicled his diagnosis with thyroid cancer and his journey to health.

Harper is the founder of the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering underserved youth through mentorship, scholarship, and grant programs. Harper was born in Iowa City, IA, the son of two doctors – his father, a psychiatrist, and his mother, an anesthesiologist. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was named Valedictorian of his department.  Harper then graduated with a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, as well as with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, with honors, from the Kennedy School of Government.  He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Howard University, Winston-Salem State University, Cheyney University, Le-Moyne Owen College, Westfield State College, Dillard University, and Tougaloo College.

Harper served on the President's Cancer Panel having been appointed by President Obama in 2011 and has been named Honorary Co-Chair of Redevelopment of Black Wall Street by Greenwood Chamber of Commerce.  Harper travels worldwide as a motivational speaker, addressing current affairs and life-awakening topics to a wide array of audiences of youth, adults, couples, and business leaders.  In 2004 and 2014, People Magazine named him one of their Sexiest Men Alive...he anticipates being named again in 2024.

Ralonda serves as the President and Chief Investment Officer of Malcolm Inc., overseeing investment and financial decisions for the various portfolio companies. Ralonda is also the Co-founder and General Partner of Broad St Ventures, a multi-million dollar venture capital fund co-founded by two-time Super Bowl Champion Malcolm Jenkins.

Prior to her current roles Ralonda Johnson was a veteran in the accounting and finance industry. She has over a decade of experience which includes leading operational and financial audits at the Sifi designated leading insurance company Prudential Financial and luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. She has also led external audits and provided assurance on financial statements for SEC clients during her tenure at Ernst & Young LLP. Her most notable client included an investment management firm with $70 billion dollars of assets under management which specializes in asset-based investing in private equity and credit funds.

Ralonda has a Masters in Financial Accounting from Rutgers University Business School. She lives in New Jersey with her husband Joe Johnson and their two daughters Raven and Riley.

RALONDA JOHNSON

“VENTURE CAPITAL’S IMPACT ON BLACK WEALTH”

October 13, 2022 @ 5pm PT

Keith Price is a former Wall Street Executive who currently runs his own multi-strategy hedge fund based in Los Angeles, London, and the Cayman Islands. After earning his BA in Economics from Yale and his MBA in Finance from the USC Marshall School of Business, he spent the better part of the next two decades in London, New York, and Los Angeles running multi-billion dollar businesses for some of the world's top investment banks. Keith Spent 15 years heading various trading desks at Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Citigroup, where he specialized in turning struggling business units into global leaders. Keith currently advises several boards and is active in numerous charitable organizations. His interest in athletics stems from his own personal athletic career which included a record-breaking term as a running back at Yale University.

KEITH PRICE

“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE AREN’T AT THE TABLE”

November 10, 2022 @ 5pm PT

JAMES A. SAMUEL JR.

“USING TECH TO PROTECT BLACK LIVES”

December 8, 2022 @ 5pm PT

A former Air Force engineer, fighter pilot & two-star general civilian with three decades of U.S. intelligence experience and a passionate advocate for personal security. Passionate advocate for personal security and CEO of Pluribus Inc., maker of ANJEL Tech, a cloud-based app that turns any smartphone into a powerful bodycam.

For 32 years, James served in National Security as a Telecommunications Engineer, an F-15 Fighter Pilot and U.S. Defense Department Senior Intelligence Executive. James recently retired from the military, in March 2022,  and James is one of historically few African-American fighter pilots to ever serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. He flew fighter jets during 9/11, was deployed to Afghanistan and East Africa, and fought to keep this country safe. 

However, as a black man in America, James still felt unsafe and vulnerable. One fateful day in 2019, while driving cross-country on a family vacation, James questioned his own personal safety and that of his family. That experience led James to launch Pluribus Inc., a big data, geospatial and geosocial analytics company devoted to tech-based personal safety and security. In 2021, the company launched ANJEL Tech , the world’s premier personal security system.

With the app, users preload emergency contacts to be pinged when they are pulled over or confronted by law enforcement officers and/or other potentially harmful/fatal public interactions. The app records video and audio of the encounters and live streams them to users’ contacts. It also has a GPS element that shows and gives directions to contacts about where confrontations are taking place.

VERNELL HILL

“LEADERSHIP AS A WAY TO EXPAND BLACK TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES”

January 12, 2023 @ 5pm PT

Vernell Hill is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School. He is a Business Strategist with a background in Management Consulting, Private Equity, and Leadership. He is a highly motivated business executive with 10+ years of management and sales expertise, including a proven track record in strategy, consulting, operational consulting, implementation consulting, marketing consulting, technology consulting, SAAS, and leadership. Vernell is experienced in designing business, operational, and implementation strategies.

He currently works in Global Industrial Technology Consulting & Project Management and holds a Board Advisory position.

Among the list of companies, he’s worked with include but are not limited to Advantech Corporation, OPTUM(United Health), Foxconn, Oracle, Intel, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Avnet, Schneider Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, and Columbia Sportswear.