As a child Reginald showed amazing ambition and vision, once famously telling his Grandparents in a financial race discussion “Why should White Guys have all the Fun.
At age 10 he started his first business distributing the Afro Newspaper to personal clients.
BEFORE the ASCENSION
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BEFORE the NORTH STAR
Reginald’s competitive drive to be the best at whatever he did made him a triple threat athlete in high school and earned him a football scholarship to Virginia State University.
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BEFORE becoming ETERNAL
In a bold move Reginald decides to put sports behind him and takes ambitious steps to get invited to attend Harvard Law School. In the process he becomes the only student in the history of the school to be admitted without applying.
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ASCENSION
A few years after graduating from Harvard Law and taking a job at a prestigious Law Firm, Reginald leaves his job to start Wall Street's first African American law firm with a few colleagues.
Reginald decides it is time to ascend from Law Firm to a Venture Capital Firm and establishes TLC Group. His VC firm buys the struggling McCall Pattern Company for a reported $22.5 million dollars.
NORTH STAR
After successfully reviving McCall, Reginald sells it for $90 million then outbids Citicorp to buy TLC Beatrice International for $985 million. It was the largest offshore buyout in American history at the time.
TLC reports annual sales of $1.8 billion, making it the first black-owned company to pass the billion-dollar mark and Reginald the wealthiest Black Man in America at that time.
ETERNAL
Reginald F Lewis’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of ambition, perseverance, and strategic thinking.
His story reminds us that innovation and determination can break down barriers, that success should be used to uplift others, and that the pursuit of excellence knows no boundaries.
IMPACT