In this watershed moment, we have the opportunity to highlight Black resilience and excellence. African-American communities have been pioneers in starting their own businesses. They have a vision of creating generational wealth for their families by building thriving businesses and banks. Black communities are integral to American entrepreneurial culture, and throughout history, have built enterprises from the ground up and pool resources to build. From J.B. Stradford, the largest Black-owned luxury hotel of its time, to the first female self-made millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, to Oprah Winfrey, an American media executive and philanthropist. We recognize the achievements of Black Entrepreneurship that paved the way for African and other immigrants.
This session seeks to explore ways of addressing the fundamental disparities among the African-American and African communities, with a focus on investment capital, employment, and entrepreneurship, in pursuit of social and economic justice. Join us as we envision opportunities to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem to enable targeted and intentional investments for Black-owned neighborhood businesses.
ADN Board Member Innocent Shumba is a member of EY’s Assurance practice and has diverse accounting and auditing experience. He is involved in several organizations, including the EY Black Professional Network, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Certified Fraud Examiners, Institute of Internal Auditors and the National Association of Black Accountants.
A seasoned global social and environmental impact leader and scholar, Dr. Copeland is the Founder of Black Philanthropy Month and Founder & CEO of The WISE Fund. An expert on cultural and ecosystem diversity issues, she is recognized as a HistoryMaker for her innovative civic contributions. Trained as an anthropologist and urban designer, she creates impact strategies, movements, organizations, programs, technologies, funding, and systems for companies, foundations, nonprofits and governments operating in the US, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
A seasoned technologist and serial entrepreneur, Danny turned a passion for change into an assignment at SAP in Tech Diversity; dedicated to finding a self- sustaining method for ethnic inclusion via the natural complement to corporate profitability. He leads the Inclusive Culture workstream and Triple Double. He works in partnership and collaboration with SAP ecosystem partners, customers and schools in three areas: sustainable talent pipeline alignment with the needs of industry; tech industry collaboration and embrace of difference for maximizing profitability; and inclusive entrepreneurship and equitable supplier diversity.
Sanna Gaspard has a passion for entrepreneurship, healthcare, medical devices, and innovation. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering (BME) at the University of Miami in Miami, FL (‘04). She completed her Masters (’05) and PhD (’11) in BME at Carnegie Mellon University. While earning her graduate degree she received two patents for two medical technologies she invented. Her two inventions include an infant therapy device to support preterm infants’ health and an optical device for early bedsore detection. To support the commercialization of these two technologies she founded two medical device companies, TLneoCare, LLC and Rubitection Inc. As CEO of both startups she developed the vision, business strategy and plan, the IP strategy, and raised initial financing.
