BLACK MEN XCEL

On October 12th – 14th, I got the Opportunity to attend the 6th Annual Black Enterprise Black Men XCEL Conference sponsored by FedEx at the Gaylord Resort & Convention Center. The experience was incredible and extremely fulfilling. It’s not every day you get to see a room filled with hundreds of black men striving towards excellence in corporate America. For me that was everything!

What is BLACK MEN XCEL?

Black Men Xcel is a groundbreaking leadership excellence conference for black men who are a valuable and necessary pool of talent for the success of companies, industries, communities and the nation, supported and amplified by the robust multimedia activations of Black Enterprise, including digital, video and social.

I’m grateful that Oracle NetSuite provided me with the opportunity to connect and engage directly with black men who share my passion for leadership and professional excellence in every field of endeavor. We comprise a unique source of human capital invaluable to corporate America’s competitiveness in the global economy.

According to a report from The Washington Post, as of December 2021, “Only 8 percent of “C-suite” executives — the highest corporate leaders, often those reporting to the CEO — are Black.” (Jan, 2021, Washington Post) Throughout my professional career, I haven’t seen a lot of representation from my community. It has been difficult to picture myself in the highest positions in corporate America when it seems like there aren’t many of us. Thanks to this event, I now believe it is possible to pursue a leadership role if I choose to go down that path.

At the conference, I had the opportunity to speak with Carl J. Holland, 2nd Vice President, Client Management at The Standard. It felt unreal to connect with someone that looks just like me in one of the highest positions in his field. Carl spoke about his experiences so far in corporate America and surprisingly it resembled mine. Honestly, it was a relief to hear about the challenges he faced and is currently still dealing with. Sometimes it feels like we as black men must work twice as hard just to get the same level of recognition or opportunities as our peers. However, this conference emphasized that the more we strive in our careers, the more opportunities we will open for the next generation of professionals. Attending conferences like this every year is a vital part of moving the glass ceiling upward and outward for professionals like myself.

Conference Events

BMXCEL offered impactful sessions with learnings and opportunities to network with key stakeholders:

• A “Fireside Chat” with Attorney Ben Crump on Holding Corporate America Accountable and moderated by corporate titan Earl G. Graves Jr., President and CEO of Black Enterprise and son of the late great Earl Graves.
• Another talk by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott where he shared on the challenges of leading from City Hall and what he wants to accomplish for the community moving forward.
• One-on-One Executive Coaching with Keith Ivory Millner. My takeaways: I spend a lot of time caught up in the moment trying to accomplish a short-term goal and sometimes forget about long-term goals, which is what really counts. Keith took the time to listen to them and helped me draw out a plan to prioritize what’s more important. One thing he said stuck with me, “Don’t major in the minors.”

Other notable speakers I don’t want to leave out included Grant Hill, Owner, Vice Chairman of the Board for the Atlanta Hawks; and Ray M. Robinson, Chairman of Citizens Bancshares Corporation.

It was amazing to see how powerful companies and organizations partnered with Black Enterprise to make this event a success. And, it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t thank:?FedEx, Fidelity, Gilead, Manulife, John Hancock, NowandLater, Prudential, Ally, American Airlines, JP Morgan Chase & Co., AARP, Accenture, Amazon, AT&T, Bank of America, Dell, UnitedHealthGroup, and Walmart. I look forward to seeing Oracle NetSuite become a sponsor for this pivotal event.