厄尔·格雷夫斯 (Earl Graves)，《黑人企业杂志》的主席与出版人
出版商，Earl G. Graves有限公司主席兼首席执行官，《黑人企业杂志》总裁兼首席执行官
Earl Gilbert Graves, Sr. (born January 9, 1935) is an American author, publisher, entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Black Enterprise magazine. He currently resides in Scarsdale, New York.
让我们把思绪拉回 1970 年。这时美国社会正处于动荡之中，“投票权力法案”刚颁布五年，对把争取权力视为纯粹政治斗争的一代人来说，做生意是个肮脏的词汇。时年 35 岁的厄尔·格雷夫斯却持不同的看法。在小企业管理局的担保下，他贷款 17.5 万美元创办了一份杂志，希望能够用这份杂志激励美国黑人从商并且告诉他们做生意的诀窍。他的第一个目标，也是第一批质疑他的事业的人，是广告客户。那时，出版界还没有像现在这样根据不同的特征把读者分成不同的群体。更重要的是，广告界对格雷夫斯的这个特殊群体没有任何兴趣。一位业界的经理告诉他，在广告客户眼中，黑人客户只有一个形象：“喝着半瓶酒，开着二手车。”
30 年来，《黑人企业》（Black Enterprise）杂志帮助人们改变了这个成见。今天，美国共有 88 万家黑人所有的公司，格雷夫斯的商业帝国是其中最大的企业之一，他的杂志共有 37.5 万读者，年销售额达 4,790 万美元。这本杂志与沃尔特·迪斯尼（Walt Disney）和百事可乐等大公司建立合作关系，并且帮助美国黑人建起了自己的关系网。
格雷夫斯最大的批评者或许来自黑人内部。全国黑人商会主席哈里·奥尔福德（Harry Alford）认为《黑人企业》宣扬美国黑人生活富足幸福，这在一定程度上妨碍了雇用少数民族成员的赞助性行动。支持这种行动的格雷夫斯则无意为此道歉。他说：“我起初并不是想创办一本针对收入只有两万美元的读者。我寻找的是在商业界取得成就、能成为人们榜样的人。”
现在，这些榜样的经营规模大到了 1970 年时人们未曾想到的地步──也许只有格雷夫斯当时能够预见得到。这本杂志当初有过这样一篇封面文章：“我如何以 1,000 美元起家”。而格雷夫斯最近开展的一项事业是与花旗银行集团（CitiGroup）联合，为非裔美国企业家提供至少 1,000 万美元的创业资金。
简介编辑本段回目录
Background
Graves was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York City. He is a 1958 alumnus of Morgan State University, having received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
From 1965 to 1968, Graves served as an administrative assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. When Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis, Graves was assigned by Senator Kennedy to oversee the arrangements for Rev King's body to be brought home.
He is the father of Earl G. Graves, Jr.
Business ventures
Undertook his first job at the age of seven selling boxed Christmas cards for his uncle. His territory was severely limited due to his father's rule that he could only sell to people living on their side of the block.
While at Morgan State, Graves made a name for himself as an entrepreneur. Realizing that there was a big market for flowers during Homecoming Week, he went to two competing local florists and cut deals with both to sell flowers on campus. For a percentage of the profits, the florists provided the flowers while Graves covered the campus.
In 1968, Graves started Earl G. Graves, Ltd. Under that holding company, he began the Earl G. Graves Associates management consulting firm. In 1970, the company's Earl G. Graves Publishing Company division began publishing Black Enterprise magazine. Black Enterprise states as its goal to provide inspiration to African Americans in the business sector. The magazine has 500,000 paid subscribers and over 3 million readers. It has also grossed $53 million in sales.
Black Enterprise Events is another division of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., which coordinates gatherings for the readers of Black Enterprise. The Black Entrepreneurs Conference, Black Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge, and Women of Power Summit are a few of the events sponsored by Black Enterprise Events.
Earl Graves, Ltd., also co-owns a private equity fund with Travelers Group called the Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street Corporate Growth Fund. The purpose of the fund is to invest in minority controlled businesses.
From 1990 to 1998, Graves owned the Pepsi Cola bottling franchise in Washington D.C.
Other accomplishments
Graves is a director of Aetna, AMR Corporation, Daimler AG, Federated Department Stores and Rohm and Haas, and is a volunteer on the boards of TransAfrica Inc. and the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Howard University. Graves received the Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 1988, and served as the national commissioner from 1990 to 1995. He received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1999. Graves donated $1 million to Morgan State’s school of business and management. His alma mater honored him by changing the name of the school of business to the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management. In 2002, Graves was named as one of the 50 most powerful and influential African Americans in corporate America by Fortune magazine. He serves on the George W. Bush administration's Presidential Commission for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.On April 26, 2007 Earl G. Graves Sr. was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame.
He has been named as a recipient of the 2009 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.
相关链接编辑本段回目录
参考文献编辑本段回目录
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_G._Graves,_Sr.
