Moses McKissack III: The Builder Who Turned a Family Trade Into a Licensed Firm, and a Licence Into Federal Contracts
The grandson of an enslaved master builder started working as a draughtsman at 11, won Vanderbilt faculty commissions before he held a license, forced Tennessee to register him, and put 1,500 workers on the first major Army air base built by a Black contractor.
Latest Articles
Nigeria's Pension Industry And FSD Africa Sign Agreement For Proposed $750 Million Infrastructure Fund
Nigeria's Pension Industry Leadership Council and FSD Africa signed an MoU for a $750 million infrastructure fund, with 19 pension funds showing interest. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
US Treasury Offers $125 Billion At November Refunding And Moves Seven-Year Note To Quarterly Issuance
The US Treasury will sell $125 billion of 3-, 10- and 30-year debt next week, raising $28 billion in new cash, and shift the 7-year note to quarterly issues. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
Cesar Picton: The Coal Merchant Who Turned a £100 Legacy Into a Thames Wharf, Then Retired to Collect the Rent
Brought to England as a six-year-old "gift" in 1761, he spent twenty-seven years inside one of Britain's great coal-owning households, left with £100 and a customer list, and built a riverside fuel business he exited at 52 as a landlord and "gentleman."
The Pulse
The Pulse is your weekday briefing on what's moving across Black American and African business. We cut through the noise to deliver the market moves, funding rounds, policy shifts, and leadership changes that matter to founders, operators, executives, and investors building across the diaspora.
Nigeria's Pension Industry And FSD Africa Sign Agreement For Proposed $750 Million Infrastructure Fund
Nigeria's Pension Industry Leadership Council and FSD Africa signed an MoU for a $750 million infrastructure fund, with 19 pension funds showing interest. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
The Week Ahead
The Week Ahead is your Sunday briefing on the economic, business, and cultural developments worth tracking in the coming week. Before Monday hits, you'll know what earnings are dropping, what policy decisions are pending, what events matter, and what market signals to watch across Black American and African business.
Federal Reserve, ECB, Bank Of Japan And Bank Of Canada Announce Rate Decisions In Same Week As US GDP
The FOMC decides Oct 28 at 2 p.m. ET, BEA publishes Q3 GDP and PCE Oct 29, and the ECB, Bank of Canada and Bank of Japan all set rates between Oct 28 and 30. The Black Executive: Weekly Market Watch
Today's Builders
Today's Builders profiles the founders, operators, investors, and executives shaping Black and African business right now. These are the leaders closing rounds, launching platforms, entering new markets, and building institutions across the diaspora economy in real time.
He Ran a $23 Billion Business Unit. Then He Tried to Run the NAACP.
Bruce S. Gordon spent 35 years climbing from management trainee to president of Verizon's retail division — overseeing $23 billion in annual revenue and 35,000 employees. When he walked into the NAACP in 2005, he was the most powerful corporate executive ever to hold the role. He lasted 19 months.
He Built the Bible of Black Business From a $250,000 Bank Loan and a Blank Page
Earl G. Graves Sr. did not inherit a media company. He created the category. In August 1970, with a loan from Chase Manhattan Bank, a small staff, and a mission that had no commercial precedent, he put the first issue of Black Enterprise on newsstands.
She Built the App That Puts Every Streaming Service in One Place. Then She Drove It Into a Porsche.
Rose Hulse founded ScreenHits TV in London in 2012 when the streaming wars hadn't yet been named. By 2023 she had signed the first global deal to put a TV streaming platform inside a car — and done it in 56 countries at once.
She Started on the Ramp Loading Luggage. She Ended Up Running the Company.
Stephanie Chung spent more than thirty years in aviation — parking planes at Boston Logan as a teenager, selling corporate accounts for US Airways at 25, generating $835 million in revenue at Flexjet, becoming the first African American president of a private aviation company and more.Featured Stories
Featured Stories are stand-alone pieces that deserve more than a single scroll — reported features, longform essays, and spotlight stories that cut across our usual formats.
The Bankability Test: Why Capital Follows Structure, Not Speeches
Africa50’s pipeline of bankable deals shows that the real bottleneck in infrastructure is documentation and networks, not dollars, and the same failure is holding back projects in Black communities across the United States and the Caribbean.
Family Office Formation in the Diaspora Corridor. What It Takes To Stand Up Capital Vehicles That Move Cleanly Between the US, West Africa, and the Caribbean
Diaspora families are already moving billions across the US, West Africa, and the Caribbean; the advantage will belong to those who build real family office architecture that preserves tax efficiency, governance, and deal access in every jurisdiction.
PIDG and the Blended Finance Playbook. De‑Risking Infrastructure for Commercial Lenders
PIDG’s first‑loss capital and guarantee structures show how a relatively small pool of catalytic money can unlock billions in private investment for African infrastructure; the same architecture is available to Black US finance professionals working through CDFI and community funds in cities at homeYesterday's Architects
Yesterday's Architects is a biographical series honoring the Black and African entrepreneurs, executives, and innovators who laid the foundation before us. These are the builders history often overlooks — the dealmakers, the institution founders, the strategists who created industries and wealth across the diaspora when the odds were designed against them.
Cesar Picton: The Coal Merchant Who Turned a £100 Legacy Into a Thames Wharf, Then Retired to Collect the Rent
Brought to England as a six-year-old "gift" in 1761, he spent twenty-seven years inside one of Britain's great coal-owning households, left with £100 and a customer list, and built a riverside fuel business he exited at 52 as a landlord and "gentleman."
Moses McKissack III: The Builder Who Turned a Family Trade Into a Licensed Firm, and a Licence Into Federal Contracts
The grandson of an enslaved master builder started working as a draughtsman at 11, won Vanderbilt faculty commissions before he held a license, forced Tennessee to register him, and put 1,500 workers on the first major Army air base built by a Black contractor.
André Rebouças: The Engineer Who Wrote the Concession Law, Then Built a Port Company Under It
The Afro-Brazilian grandson of a freed woman turned a stalled state dockworks into Brazil's first private port companies. He drafted the legal framework, the statutes and the business case himself, and then learned that a concession is worth only as much as the cabinet that granted it.
Featured Series
Featured Series is where we slow down and go deep. Each series is a multi-part investigation into a single theme shaping Black and African business: ownership, access to capital, global markets, policy, leadership, and long-term strategy.
The Money Exists. It Went Somewhere Else.
Black American households command $1.6 trillion in annual buying power. Affluent Black households alone spent $246 billion last year. The capital to fund permanent policy infrastructure has never been the constraint. The decision to deploy it that way has been. (Part 3 of 6)
BEJ Monthly Roundup
The BEJ Monthly Roundup brings together the month’s most important business, economic, financial, and market developments across the global Black diaspora, giving executives, founders, and investors a concise view of what happened and what matters next.
October 2026 Roundup: The Black Executive Journal’s Essential Reads, Market Signals and New Reports
From African credit ratings and Nigeria’s private-financing pipeline to digital infrastructure, a new print magazine and the expansion of BEJ’s intelligence platforms, October’s coverage connected the movement of capital with the institutions being built around it.
Latest Articles
Nigeria's Pension Industry And FSD Africa Sign Agreement For Proposed $750 Million Infrastructure Fund
Nigeria's Pension Industry Leadership Council and FSD Africa signed an MoU for a $750 million infrastructure fund, with 19 pension funds showing interest. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
US Treasury Offers $125 Billion At November Refunding And Moves Seven-Year Note To Quarterly Issuance
The US Treasury will sell $125 billion of 3-, 10- and 30-year debt next week, raising $28 billion in new cash, and shift the 7-year note to quarterly issues. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
Cesar Picton: The Coal Merchant Who Turned a £100 Legacy Into a Thames Wharf, Then Retired to Collect the Rent
Brought to England as a six-year-old "gift" in 1761, he spent twenty-seven years inside one of Britain's great coal-owning households, left with £100 and a customer list, and built a riverside fuel business he exited at 52 as a landlord and "gentleman."
