Transcripts For CSPAN2 Finance 20240703

[background noises] good afternoon everyone. You look like a great crowd here this afternoon. Before we even start give yourselves a big round of applause for coming to learn more about closing the wealth gap in diversity and inclusion. We have some wonderful panelist with us this afternoon. I am so pleased to be here today and honored to be hosting this panel on Financial Services closing the wealth gap and providing access to capitol my name is maxine waters. [cheering] formerly chair of the Financial Services committee of the house of representatives and now the ranking member. Still trying to carry on the work that we were doing as a chair. As you know after the recent election they were able to get control of the house of representatives and they dismantled our subcommittee that i had created on diversity and inclusion. But we are going to talk about what it means to have this wealth gap. You are going to talk to some people who are dealing with clothing this wealth gap have to close the wealth gap and help to inspire and motivate you to know what you can do to be a part of the work that now the entire black caucus is involved in. For over two decades i posted Financial Services brain trust here at the cbc legislative conference and over the years we have discussed a variety of topics related to black wealth. This year i wanted not just to talk about the problem we face but to also present real life examples of successful powerful black people were placing the trails with solutions that happen to lift up our community. We all know generational wealth is the key to ending poverty. Increasing educational attainment, leveling the Playing Field and Opening Doors of opportunity. Unfortunately due to the legacy of slavery, jim crow, predatory lending, redlining and continued racism and discrimination, black americans continue to face a growing racial gap that shows no sign of narrowing. Wealth is a difference between what you own and what you over it wealth is more than just owning a home. It is about the equity in that home. Wealth is more than buying and selling stock on it app. Its realizing gains. Wealth is not about having a good job with great benefits, wealth is about having a good job with great benefits and stock options. Wealth isnt about working for someone else it is about owning your own business. Wealth is what you can pass down to your children it will make their lives better and help them to get ahead. Not hold them back. Wealth is a power, freedom, opportunity and we all deserve it. But when it comes to wealth black america comes up short. Then mark said it looked at racial wealth gap from 1860 until 2020 per the study found that in 2020 every dollar the average white family has the average black family only has 17 . Seventeen cents the same study found a 1920 the average black family only had 10 cents for every dollar the average white family had and 100 years we have only gained 7 cents on the dollar. Lets look at the last 40 years. The same study found since 1980 the racial wealth gap is growing by about one tenth of a each year. The numbers dont lie. The racial wealth gap remains persistent and consistent. Lets take a closer look at these numbers. A concerning 60 of our wealth is in our homes and only 45 of black people are homeowners. The black homeownership rate has been roughly unchanged since 1976. He may be wondering why having so much wealth and homeownership should be a cause for concern. The answer is that we have seen what happens when the Housing Market crashes as it did in 2008. It was a black families who were disproportionately by the meltdown unless billions of dollars in home equity. And are still working to build that equity back. White family 75 are homeowners this level has only increased since 1976. White homeownership was at 69 only 38 of white wealth is in housing. However white homes are typically valued higher than black homes. The average white home valued at 440,000 and the average black home valued at 217,000. The bulk of white wealth is investments, business equity, and liquid assets. According to the minneapolis fed 24 of white wealth comes from business. Only 13 of black wealth comes from Business Ownership. I what it comes to financing those businesses about white businesses can rely on their own investments and lack businesses frequently report a lack of access to capitol. A study by the joint center for Political Economic study found 60 of black owned businesses had challenges obtaining, access to capitol. Data from the Small Business administration that even when black owned businesses had preexistent relationships with the Financial Institutions, 53 of these businesses were still unable to have their own ink needs fully met. Conversely only 25 of whites own businesses were unable to fully meet their funding needs. This is not a qualification problem or an educational problem or lack it is black entrepreneurs are qualified, educated and driven. This is a discrimination problem. The racial wealth gap is a vicious cycle. A lack of wealth leads to a lack of Investment Opportunities which leads to a lack of wealth and so on. This problem is a direct result of decades of financial neglect, of communities of color. This is a problem that affects all americans because the racial wealth gap is literally Holding Americas economy back according to a 2021 report if we close the racial wealth gap u. S. Gdp could rise four 6 briefly think about the racial wealth gap in valid terms the reality facing our community is sobering. According to the Federal Reserve bank of minneapolis in 2019 the per capitol wealth of the average white family was 338,093. The average per capitol wealth h of a black family was only 60126. When you think about the wealth gap in terms of overall dollars the scale of the problem comes into focus. One study estimates we would need 7. 5 billion to catch the rasul wealth gap in half. To cut the racial gap in half 15 million to eliminate it altogether. Now republicans dont even want to fund the government we note this amount of money is not feasible given our capitol political environment. But the fact remains the racial wealth gap isnt going anywhere unless we do something to address it. In order to even make a dent we need permanent changes to u. S. Public policy and increased investment in black communities. We need to create more black owned businesses but we need to empower more black entrepreneurs proving to provide more blackowned firms with the seated capitals then get off the ground and working capitol so they can stand their businesses and take their operations to the next level. So, instead of going on and on with this information that you are going to hear about from the experts from people who are involved in this problem of the wealth gap and who are dealing with it in different ways and who have come through a lot of the obstacles in the and thediscrimination that is so prevalent, i am going to dispense with anything else and i would like to introduce my esteemed guests for todays panel. I dont have them in particularly the order theyre going to speak. But im going to give you the basic information about whom they are and what they have accomplished. First, let me introduce mr. Christopher williams the chairman of siebert, williams, shank and company llc a successful Investment Banking and Financial Firm that is not only minority owned but also majority women owned. Has decades of experience in corporate markets and the Institutional Investor market he has used created Business Practices to meet specific needs of our nations like black businesses professionals who need access to funding. Particularly in ways that traditional banks are simply incapable of doing. In addition because of mr. Williams Clear Vision Impact Fund is leading the way in making investments to Small Businesses that are minority owned or operated to support economic growth, foster inclusivity and help entrepreneurs of color succeed in an environment. So, it is clear mr. Williams history making efforts have helped put black owned firms on the map. Have greatly help chip away at our nations racial gap. I give you mr. Williams. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. I will give a little background on my personal history. And how it ties in to a large extent much of what you would be interested in. Particularly relating to business formation. Starting out i grew up in connecticut. My father worked for electric utility. What is interesting about that might mother worked out of the home. Following my first exposure to entrepreneurship was an experience when my father was working for connecticut light and power. They went on strike. They went on strike and you think is very topical now if United Auto Workers situation. They went on strike he said strike pay is only 25 a week so how are we going to make a living . How my going to support a family . He sat down, high school educated ole. First went around visited friends could not get a job. Secondly started looking through the newspaper. Found there were a lot of ads people wanted to have their floors refinished. So effectively he on the spot that they pop up business. He said okay, let me do some calculations how much is it going to cost me too rent sanders, polyurethane, stained et cetera produced during a summer fortunately i was around, 13 years old so i was his assistant. We went around, got jobs but he ended up developing that business and for that three weeks they were on strike i never noticed any difference in the quality of our lives. But the important thing is that this is what every entrepreneur has to keep in mind but this was was a life lesson he looked at its what he had to do with his family, when your back is up against the wall you get creative and think through how can i solve this issue . That is exactly what he did but i would now call he had a capitol light surge she did not own any equipment but for that moment what was needed he made that happen. And that ironically did give me my first exposure in terms of business and entrepreneurial ship. Now, i do not know how much you want me too go into some things about the vision and our journey . Or answer questions as we go along . [inaudible] i will go ahead. So i can, following studied architecture at howard university. There we go, thats right. I went to work an Architectural Firm in new haven, connecticut. That Architectural Firm was founded by two harvard grads who had gone on to get their masters degree in architecture at yale. One of them, they are both partners in the Firm Founders of the firm one happen to number one finish number one in his class at yale and two, he was the youngest member of the American Institute of architects at the time. He passed the architectural exam is same as wendell both of the partners have since deceased. But, i always say i learned more about entrepreneurial ship learning for those two gentlemen than i ever did in any of my Business School classes. Because what did they do . One of them was always making sure the daytoday operations were efficient. We were working, they were controlling costs. Making sure the team was producing the drawings for whatever customers and business that we had on hand. But the other went at the same time was always out generating new business. So he was mr. Outside making sure there was a pipeline of revenue. Because the worst thing that can happen for any business and often happens in architect they would work on the beautiful project that was on their desk. By the time they raise their heads and they are done, there was nothing else and they had to wait. Its always a cyclicality in terms of employment. So that was the second example of entrepreneurial ship. The third, after working a career and wall street at Lehman Brothers i decided to spin off and start the williams capitol group, my own firm. I started it was several colleagues with whom i had worked, developed a reputation and relationship with. And what is important is i was starting out, i think this is always import for any entrepreneur. You have fewer experience, you have your knowledge, you have a game plan. But you also need client relationships. You need the credibility because anytime you are starting out someone has to take a chance on you. And i remember the very first significant transaction that we did. This was after leaving Lehman Brothers it was only about a month. I had spoken to one of my longterm relationship it was sallie mae when sallie mae was still a governmentsponsored entity. The senior vp of finance, i had done so much business with them we developed a relationship it turns out was a gentleman named mitchell johnson. And when i was leaving lehman i senate looking to leave them starting my own firm piece if you can bring the same quality of deals that you brought me for all of these years at lehman, you can bring those on your own i will make sure my team cuts through all the red tape at cutting through the red tape for a huge entity like a governmentsponsored Corporation Like a fannie mae, freddie. In this case it was sallie mae it was critical. He did that. The very first transaction we did was 100 Million Financing for one of our corporate clients. That made all the difference the fact i could walk around and show it here is the financing on this prospectus. We did 100 million just our start up firm first sallie mae which was a large financing entity back at that time before it was even a private corporation. So thats kind of an example of how we got started. As we have grown weve grown into a variety of areas for that something we talk about a little bit later. [applause] ex i lied im going to introduce you to our next speaker. He is a young man from california. Okay go ahead its okay its all right, its all right. But what i want you to know is, he is responsible for an operation that i know i am know a lot about because much of the funding comes from the federal government through the Treasury Department. His name is mr. Everett sams. He is not only the ceo of an industry, but a pioneer whose efforts in the sphere have paved the way in changing the game for Small Businesses in our community who need access to capitol when traditional big banks will lend to us. Witnesses first unfortunate trend impacting our community and jumped right into action. Which is a Community Development Financial Institution that is certified by the Treasury Department cdf iphones and focuses on serving underserved communities. More than 20 years of expense and banking. He has changed the game for generations of black and Small Business owners and put them on the path toward building wealth. We have also had the pleasure of having them testify before the committee on Financial Services several times were he shared his expertise on the importance of c dsi as well as minority depository institutions. Ladies and gentlemen. [applause] x good afternoon everybody. Just in case my mama is in the room i am from d. C. And they lived in l. A. But weve got to get that straight. [laughter] i grew up with a family of entrepreneurs so my story it might be similar to yours, my mother is an entrepreneur shes a lawyer thats an entrepreneur my father is a doctor that is an entrepreneur for my folks on the left thats howard met and howard log get it right. My grandfather is really the one was a trailblazer in the 1930s he had the company here in d. C. Because noticing what the 1930s its equivalent to what we call a barbershop and beauty salon to the thats where the community got the news he did for Vice President s congressmen and went first africanamerican to have a trade school here. Unfortunately fell in some hard times. He got some bad Financial Advice and bed tax advice which happens in our community. And so i grew up a store with what if. Those of you who are from d. C. We had colorado avenue we didnt have it anymore. We had five locations that we didnt have it anymore if yourr families like my family dont play the whole truth. Something happens. Thats of the told me something happens. I meant finance now so i know what happened okay . I am blessed to be clear we still have two shots my cousins are run t street jc loftin and cheryl because he chance to visit. But what happened is i focus on education as you can imagine with learned appearance and endp going to boarding school. Meeting a lot of people whose parents had access to capitol and change my path. I ended up sitting on the board of the first africanamerican bank and maryland started in 1920s. And just so we are clear it was started we were not allowed a federal chargers. We were i learned a lot of lessons or create a Mortgage Business and grew into a top ted lender sold to another africanamerican bank in baltimore which is now merger. For those of you who love harvard bank, haskins game my first 200,000. I was in the black bank in the sector before it was popular. Then it jumped ship and went to wells fargo but the way i define it is committee make tell me how to be the gender to the executive wells fargo taught me too scale up and that what we were at wells fargo as part of a group are doing a billion dollars a week. We decided to go to 2 billion. If we are being honest i was the youngest in the room i said thats a bad idea. Youre coming out of 2008 it was like a perfect storm for banks low interest rates, higher op ex, inflation is we call it. In High Compliance costs i was in the room and said hey, i think we should go a different way. Like some of you have probably experienced when youre at the youngest and the brown us that does not go over too well. They said if youre so smart will to do it yourself. And so i went on this journey to try to help solve the issue for the banks which is really a supply issue. To go for 1,000,000,002,000,000,000 you need deals. Some went to the guys in the sin tech world and said hey you guys for good partner to banks if you know anything about they were like banks for bad were going to disrupt to them like we currently have 70 trillion were not going to disrupt us. This if you are so smart do it yourself i took my Ivy League Education and raise the money but not big money like robert smith pocket change manager so we are clear. And it was started. To the congresswomans comments we need to think about how to do things differently. All of the numbers say financing our community does not work, right . What we did is we sat down and said look we need a hybrid we need a hybrid whats good about Community Banks in a hybrid about whats good but sin tech those who do not note Financial Technology the way i look at it is it is our future. It solves big problems. I am just going to give you an antidote. For that woman running her business from 9 00 a. M. Till 5 00 p. M. Shes got to keep the business open to discuss to go home from five to nine do the personal things, take or the kids may be food, maybe educate them when she gets online to apply for capitol is at 10 00 p. M. I came into world everyone said she had to show up at 12 00 p. M. For education session i one of the world would she do that and lose her money for her business . Would you be thinking about. We decided to go for the first couple of years those have been in business and the regulatory invite the first couple of years we got all the licenses we need to get. We are cdfi we are a cde work member of the Federal Home Loan Bank we are the first black splc was just Small Business Lending Company prep we are only one of the 14. What this gave us a chance to do was then, as many of you know that in tech it takes a little while to build your mpp builder technology. Gives a couple ears to Start Building tech its not overseas tech is not down the corner its ours. We wanted to have the data and the information and the stuff that would change our communities. Start focusing on three verticals this is what lendistry does our first vertical as banks. As mr. Williams said he got to o have the revenue coming in. Banks cant go everywhere they want to go. In 1994 congress realized that that is why they created the cdf i. We help banks deploy capitol part of our biggest bank client is Goldman Sachs member 10,000 Small Business, 10,000 one by them black women u. S. For capitol this is where getting it from. Our second vertical is private industry so we help corporations with Corporate Social Responsibility in the last is government we help government apply capitol. No california in the house is our biggest client so shout out to california Small Business advocate and out turned it back to chairwoman waters. Thank you very much california yes. [applause] now i would like to introduce someone that needs no introduction. Mr. Smith the founder, chairman ceo of equity partners. A leading Global Investment firm focused exclusively on investing in businesses that develop and use Technology Software and data to promote Economic Equity ecological responsibility and diversity and inclusion for the prosperity of all. There is no clear example of mrt equitable future than his is decadesof philanthropic workr communities. We have seen it theres various contributions to education, for underrepresented students of color including the groundbreaking pledge of 34 million to pay off Student Loan Debt for 2019 Morehouse College graduates. [applause] also seen it with his investments and minority owned Small Businesses and lower income communities there is simply no denying mr. Smiths successful efforts to pay it forward have improved the Financial Futures of so many in our community. Making him a trailblazer with greatest of our time. Theres a lot more i could say about him. Its all written here. But we want to hear him speak. When was the last time you have heard from the richest black person, man in america . [applause] celt mr. Smith, im going to turn it over to you. You will have the responsibility for telling everyone in this room how they can get richer. [applause] alright ill do my part thank you chairwoman. Good to see both of your brothers. It is important to celebrate the stories and learn from them. Because it is what makes our community resilient, strong, capable it i would like to say were not to solve her own problems. I go to how i was raised. I was raised by two schoolteachers i was raised in a community of no banks. I was raised in a community to which there were no supermarkets. I was raised in a community where i felt loved by the people in my community. Loved in the way they took time to educate me. To take time to ensure when i got home from school, when we were bussed there is someone in our neighborhood who take all the kids until our parents got home all the kids had a chance to get eight nutritious snack the older kids taught the younger kids math and science and reading. Until our parents came home. That beloved community is what i remember and it was what i was born in. And it is what i want to see us propagate with change. And love. I think that is an important part of the message that i would like to continue to bring forward as part of what we do is love our community through our energy, our activities, and frank with you our intellect. But we are able to accomplish. Growing up, i had the good fortune going to a Public High School that had a computer for the first time, you note my year. I went and got really excited about this and said how does this thing work and my teacher said that works on this thing called a transistor brexit who invented that . They said this place called the bell laboratories i called the belt Laboratory People and said theres one in colorado i said hey id like to get a summer job they said great if youre between a junior and senior year in college we have summer internships us a great of a junior in high school and getting all as in my ap classes. So its like being in college. They of course said no. I called Human Resources woman every day for two weeks. She stopped taking the call up to the second day i called her every monday for five months. She called back there were no answering machines my dad happened to be home that day he was a principal of it elementary solicit hey this woman called from bell labs i called got an internship at bell labs i was 17 years old. [applause] there are multiple important lessons there. One of the most important quite frankly is internships can change your life. Chairwoman waters said earlier today everyone has a role. In addressing this wealth gap. If you have the ability to create an internship, then you should do it. If it is a Small Business, a corporation, a legislative caucus, whatever it might be create more internships. It opens the aperture of opportunity. One of the most important things we can do is expose our young people to the apertures of opportunity. 1. Point to, had good chance to go to a great school, get a degree in Chemical Engineering and i learned how to solve some very complex problems with some very elegant solutions. And i learned that through engagement and internships and jobs and corporations. Where, im sure i was underpaid relative to everyone else and overproducing. But what it enabled me too do is learn how business works. So it is important that we create exposure and opportunities in hiring. So diversity, equity, inclusion are critical. The math will all show you a more Diverse Companies more innovative they make more money they have more profits they grow faster. We need to ensure we fight back this affirmative action assault thats happened today because it is an enabling not just wealth enabling but education enabling giving us the opportunities to know each of us worked in a corporation. Each of us learned our skills in trade at a corporation before we went out on our own. You have got to go into an environment where its actually been practice where you can become expert in becoming expert spot an opportunity. As i was at Goldman Sachs i spotted an opportunity there is a proliferation of these things called computing systems throughout every aspect of the economy. And i realize that what really drives these things is software. There was no one, no one to focus on doing buyouts and software. If i had not had 15 years of experience using the impact of technology in the industry and incorporations and years of experience as an investment bank. Seeing how people organizing their capitol and organizing the opportunities and saying no one is investing in this space. Had i not had those experiences i couldnt do what i do today. So creating access, exposure to our young people is critically important. Now where i sit i have an opportunity to look at our community through a different lens the little wider aperture general our Community Needs . Broadband access. Value. I will tell you value is being created in this economy digitally. Years ago it was through real estate you saw the real estate crash we got disproportionately hits. We are trying to make our way back at equity. You see white households have a much lower percentage of their wealth in real estate. Real estate is not the answer for most but it is a good investment for some. The answer is ultimately move into digitally enabled businesses. If you are running a Small Business using a Digital Infrastructure to get a loan, to book clients, to manage Payment Systems to manage compliant systems all of that has over 90 return on investment to those who use that software. So it is critical we make sure our children have access to Digital Infrastructure but 82 are hp use arm broadband deserts the communities around our unaffordable broadband deserts i come here to washington, not that i like it so much even though my mother grew up. Come here to talk to our congresspeople to sate get broadband infrastructure built up for our hbcus. [applause] we need every one of those students at digitally capable to become experts. The second thing we need to do is drive capitol into our capillary banking system. At cdf i. At some point in time to get to a siding talk to chris or me and say okay at equity capitol and tens or hundreds of millions of dollars are billions of dollars. But most of our businesses to see 10,000, 30,000, 50,200,000 and they dont have a bank of their neighborhood the neighborhood i grew up in still does not have a branch bank. Okay, there is that wells fargo sign but ive never seen that branch open. Okay . Ever. I will submit to you what we need to do, internships. Make it should be higher and pushed back soft on affirmative action. Ensuring dni enables us to participate in this glorious economy called the united states. In short our hbcus have broadband capabilities and our communities around have affordable broadband and drive capitol interest cdf i. So that is how i would leave it. [applause] have a few minutes for questions. I think mr. Smith has a hard to stop he is got to make. If you have any questions if you start with mr. Smith that would give them an opportunity to get out on time. Please get to the microphone. This is the only one we have . We should have more. Get at the microphone quickly and maybe he will be able to take a couple of questions that will go on tour other panelists. Quickly. This is just stream of thoughts for mr. Smith. Do you believe that black wealth has a sympathetic effect in black communities, black networks and black spaces . And is black capitalism as much a myth as it would seem to those of us who have inherited poverty . Here is the thing. I grew up in denver, colorado and fourthgeneration from denver, right . Psych had it all these black people get to colorado . My client came from a place called tulsa, oklahoma. What happened to us there . Black capitalism is not a myth it is always under assault. It is always under assault. Know your history. Note our communities got burned down. Know that our capitol was burned in many places that doesnt mean we start over it we moved to colorado my grandmother started a soda fountain. My dad sold tamales. Then she got him to get an education to become a teacher. It aint a myth. And i saw it growing up we are sympathetic to our own community. We knew we had to take care of ourselves because no one came to our aid. Next. I am president ceo. I also have a Broadband Company called real Start Communications that is designed to be able to provide that Digital Divide for blackowned businesses. Everybody here understands the power of the black dollar. You hear the comment saying why dont we all combine moses you got opera youve got the Robert Smiths of the world. The you look at the model of the united arab memory desert to an oasis of capitalism what i would like to ask primarily how do we create our own Sovereign Wealth Fund . Not one of the most powerful eyeballs in the world but also it makes a billions of dollars for other Industries Like breonna has done with her brands. How can we leverage that capitol to create capitol markets of our own and to be able to use the genius that we have their to be able to set up opportunities where we can mobilize that wealth for our own betterment and pull our own boots. [inaudible] we do have our own Sovereign Wealth Fund its called the Pension System. Okay, my parents contributed 62 a week their entire careers into the Pension System how much of that gets managed by people who look like us . That is a question youve got to and separate how much of the federal Pension System ive got a couple hundred of my relatives who work for the federal government less than half a of the federal government pension dollars are managed by people who look like us. We dont need a separate one, we need access to the what we have been paying them for the last 50 years. [applause] that is the point. Thats what we need to ensure our legislatures understand theres federal pension dollars measured in trillions, not billions, trillions the fair share needs to go to the Asset Managers who look like the people who have been contributing that money and for now generations. That is an important issue to focus on Asset Management of public pension funds. Years ago i was in the state of sacramento i created what was called in emerging funds. We got in black Asset Managers. They performed better than the traditional ones who had been there. And unfortunate when it left the legislators let it die. But that is huge is something weve really got to work on projects the California Community let it die. When you talk about what you can do, you all need to go back to those in california state guess what the people need to say this ancient rights and we are not going to stand for this. That is what you could all do as individuals. You asked me too talk about what we all can do. Everybody has got a roll sometime is getting out there in front of the statehouse and saying make sure this money gets in the hand of my grandchildren. And sometimes thats a role thats weve got to do. Everybody can play a role. Thank you. [applause] next question. Hello my sister. I had one of those it goes to the statehouse. I am from selma and sell that some of the poorest it capitol american spite all this cultural history. And my question is let me say this but i left the seven on the importance of black history. Most of us here have some privileges of our brothers and sisters dont have it. The one place our children can learn about to get that Financial Literacy. Thank you maxine for all you do black history two minutes with digital Digital Online youve got to get your kids on my kids are on them. To teach them the power of the map the power of investing not think about investing is only one for pets of multiple forms of Asset Management. Using the Digital Infrastructure. But again you dont have broadband in your community we have done for townhouse in alabama. With that fun to ensure our hbcus and the Community Get access to broadband in those communities. Thats part of the work that has to continue to be done. I think we now 14 more of these to do. We have done nine so far we have 14 more to do to cover the six states we think of the biggest disparities that cover the rest that dont actually have broadband access. Thats the Digital Access to Financial Literacy is the answer. Wanted one more question . They are over there. Good morning my name is william. Ceo of black men network and the chairman of intelligence working together. In my practice what i have seen in doing business with other organizations and going to the government is often the lack of representation import representation of poor people pay particulate black men presented that people not want to do business with us. How can we defeat that on a massive level so that has Lasting Impact . You all take this question the massive level addressing the perception of africanamericans as being capable and worthy of investment is at the essence of what youre asking . Absolutely. That involves so many different points of support that has to begin early on in our lives and through our actions will educate those who have those perceptions. So first we have to make sure that our children are prepared. And even those who are beyond our childhood are prepared in terms of their understanding and knowledge of math, science, technology, and the ability to apply that in their life. Also there is a responsibility before i get to the external forces of parents. Making sure whether you are single parent household or have two parents making sure we are engaged. And supporting and encouraging uplifting our children have pride within themselves to go ahead and have the confidence to attack whatever challenges they have. As you go forward we start dealing with making sure the educational systems are equitable and a well funded to support our children. Thats where we start to go to our legislators. Every entity Community Organization to find sources of funding for the education and growth. And then we have to fight that legislative opposition that will always be against you. Now, it is not as though what you can do you wont necessarily change someones mind doesnt want to be changed. But you have to make sure you are positioned well they sent all of the other factors in the preparation and selfreliance. And then hopefully support and capitol to be able to succeed despite the fact there will be some opposition break the more successful you can create the more their objections will fall on deaf ears. There are a lot of people who can see succeed despite the challenges. We can keep with this line we took several from this line quickly. I met radiofrequency engineer looking for opportunity to break in some policy we dont do scientist and engineer help and policy engineers broadband. Very under reptile represented. How do we better create Workforce Development of people with less barriers to entry into the Hard Sciences have to have systems designed thinking into these spaces and policy. Dont take that . I was premed. That was before i got into finance. Theres a couple of different points as some have already been said. To create the jobs and internships to get it to understand that discipline first. We have to look at stem what programs they are they right . Do they need to be recreated or reinvented . The third will take the Community People like yourselves when have to raise their hand and say i am willing to learn under those titans who are before us. I have seen chairman waters have lots of different Staff Members ive seen a lot to them go on to different positions. The staff member has to be willing to work. Has to be willing to learn and take what they note the next level. Quite frankly one of her team members is why am sitting here today. Theres a couple of Different Things that need to happen. I would focus on the education stem specifically. Get this individuals are willing to go out there and learn. Next . Good afternoon. My name is dante tyler im owner of opp solutions. The minority owned business out of district he focuses on cybersecurity. To reduce the risk to acceptable levels for this question was for mr. Smith. But its for the entire panel. As a certified own minority business briefly spoke about gei. Can you speak to can you let the crowd an audience speak to the importance that everyone here has to advocate for Small Businesses, minority owned businesses, woman owned businesses to fight against a social economic status. What are some things a Small Business owner i can do i can take back to my Business Today and implement that will protect my bottom line. Because me losing a contract because of my social economic status or having to recertify my aa proves why am socially disadvantaged, could potentially close my doors. Out answer you two ways for the first thing is absolutely off to focus on pei and we have to focus on how to get you and others to the door. That is what we focus on access to capitol part you can get in the door and still not be able to execute, right . The other side is a venture capital. Now im going to give you a true story the truth as a Business Owner and a black man. Gei does not affect me if i see they want a white person i just hire a white person and they do for me. I am still the boss. [applause] just so we are clear about some of that stuff. Whoever they want if they want a woman, i will mention a force that they want someone to speak spanish hire someone to speak spanish to go first it does not have to be you. Sometimes you got to get over as black businesses she drew everything from eight c. We need collaborations, we need partnerships, when to team up. Sometimes we have a team of people who dont look like us to get to the end goal. I guarantee it mr. Smiths employees are not allblack. Neither of i and neither is mr. Williams. Sometimes i just want someone else in the room because they feel more comfortable. Guess what, so do we. Your job as a Business Owner is to execute by any means necessary. Your job as a Business Owner is to execute by any means necessary. My name is richard i am out of boston las vegas. I have a question i hope our cdf Eye Specialists can address. Often times in businesses recently trying to create the second black bank in the nation. We had about 40 individuals who were excited about the possibility. When we requested those individuals to make the necessary contribution to get started we lost about 70 or 80 of the group. So the question i have is as individuals become more important in the process in terms of responsibility. To speak to an individual you have to come into the spaces where we can do that. But the question is for people who do not have the opportunity but the desire, how do we get those individuals to be able to connect in a way to resources and communities. What advice was given to help them do that . A lot of folks are intimidated. A lot are discouraged, even as a cdf eye you have to complete to get the designation. And to be able to do that i would like to get your insights on how some of the stuff i dont want to say circumvented but thats the word i need to use. The way he talked about the internship and the call for two weeks. Just so you know i got declined to be a cdf eye the first time. I got declined 12 times to be an fbi lender. You have to have that resilience. Your resilience sounds like to part. With all due respect is just paperwork. Dont treat it dont make it a demigod, dont make it a god godits just filling out forms. Sometimes its going to take us a day but sometimes is going to take us a year weve got to have the resilience to get through. The second thing is on investors that all of us have to put ourselves in the right room to get to investors. They have a true investor story. Is always important, whether the Network Provides you with access to capital, access to business because sometimes you dont need an external capital, you need clients and customers that will provide the business that generates revenue, but you need the relationships in order to get the opportunity. While youre answering that question, let me add to it just a little bit. Why do we seem to have opportunities that recreate in government, such as opportunities that are available through infrastructure, where we should be advancing the possibility of discharging stations and other kinds of things, why is it that we have that and people dont know about it . I tend to think as black businesses we havent followed up on the money. We talk about it, and so im going to go to sports and come back. I talked to you all the time and they say i want to be a basketball player. Two people already told you what to do. Kobe said practice two more hours. Thats what they do and thats how they got to the nba. Now lets look to that on the business side. Are you practicing two hours a day . Because 4 30 this morning i woke up and practiced for the panel. Somebody, some agency, some investor, somebody. Youtube university is there. You can study and learn any discipline you want. There are books that have already been written. A 10,000 hours you can learn any industry. Malcolm gladwell outliers. 10,000. Thats five years. Five years in the industry you will become a genius in that industry. A master. To congresswoman waters point, if you read the policy, what does the government to do . No disrespect. Government is a little bit slow to execute, but they write whats going to happen in the future. Broadband and clean energy is where the money is going. Anybody that doesnt see that, 1. 7 billion a day is spent on clean energy. If you are a Marketing Company, i am a Marketing Company for clean energy, a lawyer, for clean energy. Just to say it, manifested. Do whatever youve got to do but youve got to know where to the money is doing. Weve got to know where the money is going and react accordingly. Thank you. If you know people are getting funding, you have to keep going around asking whatever you think the next source will be because someone, people will say i dont know, but heres the person you should speak to or heres the place you should check, so youre often not far from the answer if you keep asking. Thats very important. Good afternoon. Im not a Business Owner or anything in that matter. Im actually a student, which leads into my question. What advice would you give Young Students such as myself in the beginning stages of their career and are interested in topics such as capital, equity but lack the knowledge. Some of us get exposure to the topics depending on our majors and some, like myself, dont get exposure at all being a Political Science major and international relations. I would say, as a student, you have the flexibility in addition to whatever your major is, to explore and start pursuing investments in any range of areas. You might say i dont know anything about investments. So the first thing. I remember when i first started in the business the treasurer of the state of connecticut asked me to come by her house to meet with her and a number of her friends who were investing in africanamerican women, investing together and they want to the general high level ideas and thoughts on how to make investments. These were people none of whom were finance professionals, but they just said i want to make investments, so how do we go about learning about the financial market, so i cant focus on one segment. Every week someone comes in. She happened to be in her case the treasurer of the state of connecticut so she had access to a lot of people that knew about finance and would come in and talk. But the point is whether its you investing in a friends idea that relates to a business, someone that is looking at the pool of stocks says what are those that five of us here use most, what do they think is the most important to our daily life for the business or the success of our economy and you make investments that way. There are so many ways where you say im going to put my foot in and learn because you can get everything online. You can get to digital tutorials. But then sooner or later you want to start practicing, so you just decide whether its stocks, maybe it is more conservative i want to invest in Treasury Bonds you would say im not earning that much, so im doing something else. You have access to this, so see what is more interesting and then pursue it. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im with proof of credit of stratify, we work to promote Financial Inclusion and we recently partnered with the Beneficial State Foundation to launch the underwriting for Racial Justice pilot program. These lenders that will be working the next few years basically pledge to keep something in their underwriting standards so that they can reach more black and brown borrowers. My question to you is how do we attract additional investment for technology . What we have found with the lenders, some of which are cdf eyes in the covert we have credit unions, traditional banks, they want to do great work that do not have access to Innovative Technology and the funds that go into these organizations specifically are not designated for technology. They want capital on the streets, they want to deploy the capital but if you have one person running a credit shop or two people responsible for the Loan Servicing you cant get capital out as efficiently as youd like to so how do we make the case for the technology . We have two different types of investments. We have investments for lending and for operation. The tech is inclusive of the operations. I think it is similar to what mr. Williams said. You will need to people in the network, but what you want to do is ask the question. So the example they will say coffee, is there a sign that says Dunkin Donuts doesnt sell pizza . Thats a silly question. They sell coffee. Think of banks and investors. Theres no sign of what we dont do theres only a sign of what we do, but youve got to ask those questions. Every Business Owner, somebody thats trying to get an investment, theres three questions. Number one do you finance or invest in businesses like me and when i say like me im not talking race, but my industry and what i do. Second, do you find this dollar amount . Some people find 100 million and above, some people find 1 million and below. Additional sign on the front door and the third one is do you finance my use of proceeds that gets to yours. Do you finance technology and the answer could be yes thats all we do or know we dont do that at all because we dont have that expertise. You are just in their own room. But you want to ask those questions and invite yourself to the right room. Theres a lot of people that do it. On the west coast more than the east coast, silicon valley. But if you can get yourself in those rooms will get to the right people. Also depending on what youre trying to do, the funds that we set up, not necessarily in technology, but a small Small Businesses, almost all of our money came from Technology Companies that said also if you have a business and we have lent to some of these that are in an adjacent industry to ours where we can serve as a partner, a customer, a resource, we are happy to do that. So when we have apple, microsoft, ebay, you have comcast, all these companies invested. But weve called them to say we are investing in this company. First, what do you think before we invest, what do you think of that line of business . But once we make the investment, are you able to be a customer . Are you able to be a partner that helps this company get up to speed in terms of their capabilities . How can you be a benefit and thats one thing. Sometimes its the companies that are the big ones you look at. They have an armor that looks to put money out into the community as well. Its so fundamental that i dont even want to bring it up, but i live in a community in the south la, where we have a wonderful cleaners, and its just overwhelmed with support from the neighborhood, practically doesnt have a place to put another hanger, et cetera. It doesnt even have computer. And hes still writing tickets longhand. We supposedly have Economic Development operation out of la county. I got them to go over to talk with him about what they could do to not only provide the technology, expand the business. This business is so big. He could have several. The la county went over and they said to him you need money. He said i know i need that. I thought thats why ms. Waters asked you to come over and talk to me about how to do this, how to put this together where i can look for some funds in order to get the expenditure i need. Well it never happened. About what im saying is we have some businesses that are doing very well, and they are supported by the community. But they really do need the infrastructure in order to do even better and to expand. I think there is a niche that you eat eluded to. That if you are trying to do more funding when the department of commerce is doing what they are supposed to be doing, if we can put together something that really highlights the need of upgrading the technology in the Small Businesses, targeted toward a Small Businesses, black businesses, minority businesses all over the country, we can help grow the business is but they need assistance in order to do so. My community, Everybody Loves our cleaners and like i said, hes got more work than he can practically handle. I want to do something about it. Is that happening in any of your communities . [applause] there are a couple of businesses that we have lent money to where we realize great business, but either the Business Owner knows how to do the one thing that got them started does not have the breadth of knowledge and skills to be able to address the next challenge that will take them to the next level. One example is there was a company in the pharmaceutical industry. We lent money to them. You have to build out to take on more business and get Additional Technology to be able to manage the inventory of drugs. That required some construction. They had the money, but it takes a certain skill set to be able to manage the construction process so that you can have a safe bill installed, walls knocked out while you are still manufacturing drugs in a sterile environment so dust doesnt get in the air. You have to be able to do that in a number of days. If you dont do that, you could be out of business and thats the challenge. Thats what we have to do to try to help this person. Lets do this as quickly as possible. You dont have three months of construction time where you can stop manufacturing the drugs. Drugs. You have three weeks and thats it. I think that we need to provide more support. That niche of people that have those businesses that need to those kind of things, but the businesses would not know how to find them necessarily or want to take part of their profits and pay for them because they dont understand the cost of it. But if we come up with that money to provided to those kinds i hate to call them consultants because it is even more than that, but lets talk about how we do that when we begin to talk about the next appropriations. Whether its cdf i or where in the government we can get it done. Okay. Next. My name is sharon and im with the hbc you action coalition. I lead a program called our Money Matters which is a free online Financial Literacy platform geared towards hbc students, staff, faculty and the surrounding communities. In addition to the Financial Literacy we also have Real Estate Development, entrepreneurship, Economic Development, clean energy. So to let you know i was paying attention i may Financial Literacy company and Clean Energy Company and Real Estate Development company and Economic Development company. With all that said we currently have for the our Money Matters. Com for those that want to go to the website, our Money Matters. Com has been funded for the last three years with 5. 6 million grant from wells fargo. So because of that grant weve been able to bring the program to 28 hbcus and we have over 15,000 students using the platform every day to improve their financial flooding. Thats exciting. So, what im looking for our new investors. I want to diversify our investment thats been partnered but i also want to bring this platform to all 100 to seven hbcus and the 300 plus minority serving institutions. I am here asking if you gentlemen would be interested in investing in the company and in our work and if not to do you know those that would be interested in doing so. I will be here for this entire conference and i can meet you afterwards and we can talk in more detail. I need to know more about your business so we can certainly talk after and then see because it sounds like you are doing quite a few Different Things. I need to make sure i understand when you put the money to work are you looking for return, i dont want to have the whole conversation here if you have more questions to ask that we can talk about that more after this panel. I have an announcement to make and that is following this panel we are going to have a workshop called innocent and exonerated and then we have the Innocence Project that will be there talking about the work that they are doing for those who have been incarcerated, whove been found guilty but are not really guilty. And of the Innocence Project and two others that would be involved in this, they go in and they do the investigation and help to determine if this person truly is innocent theyve been incarcerated unfairly they will get them out, they will get them exonerated. So when we finish this if you want to visit with us from three to 4 p. M. In room 145b, many of you sitting in the audience know people that have been incarcerated. Family members that have been incarcerated. You know they didnt have the money to pay big lawyers and they got railroaded a so you want to know about this, feel free to join after in room 145b from three to 4 p. M. We are going to wrap this up pretty soon. We are going to try to take care of the people in line. Our guests have been generous with their time. Who is next . I am next. I am a scholastic reporter and very thankful for this Engaging Panel that all the speakers have provided to. My question is in regards to who motivated you to pursue this field of entrepreneurship that is difficult to pursue and there is a likely chance of failure over the fact that africanamericans have been subjugated again in this industry with the wealth gap and how have you been motivated and who specifically motivated you to carry out these ideas and how can we inspire future generations and kids of the day to become the leaders of tomorrow . [applause] first it goes without saying that im motivated by you. [applause] it started for me in church so there has to be background in which he talked about your family and upbringing. Then i got the chance to see those that are performing. When i got to sit on the board of that africanamerican group i was the youngest person before me was 56. So ive spent a lot of time listening. God gave you two ears and one mouth. Listen. We have an opportunity to listen to people and ask questions. There is so much experience that people have that you can gain from and im going to leave you with this. In our community we like to redo and other communities they skip steps. I want to learn from someone else, we learned their success and mistakes and then we go our own way but we skip that step. So thats what i hope for you. That is a great response. I mentioned a couple examples where i saw entrepreneurship and people i worked for and others but then theres the question theres one thing to understand entrepreneurship and another to find yourself in the situation where you are going to take the risk and actually pursue an entrepreneurial journey because that is a financially risky proposition. Now, what i will say, i decided to actually make my own departure from the corporate world. It was something that was the result of my being dissatisfied for some decisions very specific things. It came down to working on investment banks i said to my wife if i dont get this bonus or more this year for the work that ive been doing, im going to leave and start my own firm. But during the month leading up to that date when i got that bonus, i spent every night working on a Business Plan so that i wasnt going to leave and an emotional reaction saying im angry i didnt get what i wanted. It was now i am prepared. So when they gave me the number, its funny how we only barely missed what i was looking for. But i stayed true to my work. Im leaving and when i was able to leave in a prepared fashion and that positioned me so well if i decided i wanted to stay, they were begging will you please stay. Im going to leave because i thought about it. So, preparing is a great way to give yourself the confidence when you go out on your own and dont just leave and say im angry of something didnt go right. My name is doctor jackson. Im from new york. In our community, this is a question im asking both of you and maybe you can talk about how to empower the financial community. Our family is broken. How you can tell someone [inaudible] and is not stable. Our communities in prison and [inaudible] how you can help someone how can you do that . Its a great question. I think two answers i have for you, everybody plays a role. So while youre absolutely right, there are people in our communities that are going through their own trials and tribulations. Theres a whole group that are not. So sometimes the people that are not were going to carry the burden for those that are. So thats number one. Number two, storms dont last. So no matter what someone is going through its our job to get the positivity and preparation so that when they get out of the storm they can move forward and you can start with nothing. We have 1. 7 million customers. Ive seen businesses start with literally nothing. I dont know why they took that risk if i am being honest because mathematically that doesnt work for my brain. But then i think people start with a lot of money. So, the bottom line is its different structure and different folks. But i think entrepreneurship as you heard in the comments, it needs to be a significant part as we move forward because other things weve counted on like homeownership et cetera are not those i thought they would be. So even if you dont have the capital. Ive heard from multiple sources. What is the best way to get money and loans . I hope it doesnt come to zero. Weve talked a little bit about this but we have to learn to follow the money and i think we have to recognize when theres an opportunity. I live in southern california. Its cheaper for you to start a franchise then it is to buy a house. Ive got to buy this house into something. You can buy it and build wealth just the same and live in your apartment or the current house you have or condo. I think sometimes it is about the mindset and us being directed to the things that will actually help us build wealth. We are telling you broadband and clean energy are the future. We cant make you do something in that industry. But as mr. Williams said, go find a friend and invest in their business if you are not going to do with yourself. Thats where the money is going. We cant be more plain. Thank you. Next . Thank you, everyone for your participation. Its great information. Thank you, congresswoman. Im from southcentral and i run black pack. A Political Organization doing the work to get reparation for black americans. The question i have i love the title of the panel which is closing the wealth gap and the way to do that is getting reparations for black americans. I wanted to know what is the role if you believe there is one for black millionaires and billionaires to contribute to funding these efforts to getting reparations . We are coming up on an Election Year so what do you feel that is for black millionaires and billionaires . [applause] i give chris the hard ones. That is a complex issue because i often struggle with what is best for our community. Our reparations the just go to everyone regardless of the capacity to be handled the money responsibly . Is that the answer . And while we can do so many things to provide people with support and investing and making sound financial decisions, im going to the fundamental hard over that. What can we do to make the preparations successful in terms of the act of getting the reparations . I dont know if there are uses of the political power and the social power that will bring more money more effectively to the black community where its needed instead of just broadly if this is what you have in mind in terms of reparations that you envision instead of just spreading it out across the community regardless someones ability to successfully deploy that money and benefit from it longterm. So that isnt an answer to your question, but i think there are things we need to look at may be reparations where the money goes to certain funds that are deployed, access and deployed by those in our community that made more sense than broadly giving the money without having a targeted approach. You dont believe black millionaires and billionaires should play a role in the efforts to acquire, politically acquire reparations . They should play a role in supporting the political efforts to raise the quality of life and standards in our community. I just dont know that i would say i want to put my Political Capital behind a saying sayingreparations is the answer because i personally they employing 20 people. And what have we done. Do we go ahead and fight that herculean battle and win and find that somehow it was inefficient because the money didnt go where it could be more effective with the greatest number of lives and i just dont know that without knowing the specifics of the plan that you might have reparations broadly is going to be the answer to our problems at the community. I think i would say we are not ready yet. Thats just the honest truth, and let me tell you why. Three years ago a bunch of corporations said they were going to give billions of dollars. Three years from now, we are fighting a Supreme Court ruling. Have any of you all stopped drinking their product even at the stores, using their stuff . We are not ready and im saying that to you but different. We need to figure out how to mobilize and take action as a community. Money does not solve about. [applause] the answer to your question is yes because quite frankly i know what to do with of the money, just being real about me. But to mr. Williams point we have to have a plan. We cant ask people like congresswoman waters to get reparations and not have a plan. I think your question and your journey starts us on the plan. You are figuring it out going through the trial and error and the one that says that doesnt work, that does work, this is what we should do. And be very clear about that. But im guessing today, chairwoman waters said it, 15 trillion, and lets be clear, 15 trillion erases the gap if they dont get any money. If they keep getting money, the number grows so from 15 trillion, honestly, half of you, do you know what youre going to do with a damned if the first wasnt investments, it wasnt about education, it wasnt about broadband, clean energy, we have the wrong mindset right now. So i do think what youre doing should be saluted. But i think we are not quite there yet. And i hope we get there. Youre in california, so you know we just had to the the repn task force completed and they are doing their work. California, legislative black caucus, they want to educate the general public on the reparations and with that they are trying to raise money to actually see that through. You dont know if there is a plan but there is. Thereve been recommendations. The studies have been done especially in california. Im just asking people that have the means what is their responsibility and how do they contribute to these efforts even if it is the california black legislative caucus or the Grassroots Organization . Thank you for the discussion. Theyve led a great effort on the reparations and they did come up with a plan and i believe the government, the governor may have bought into the plan at some point but now im told the governor said we dont have the money to do it anyway. So, reparations is a very difficult and complicated. I think that it should be pursued and also we should not stop pursuing ability to close the wealth gap in some of the ways that youve heard about here today. Pay attention, get on the internet, search for things, make up words that you think make good sense thats going to get you this information and go out there and figured out how youre going to get some of that money. You mostly dont know about the cdf eye. I want you to go and get on the platform and find out about the cdf i and find out more about it. But it takes work. It takes investigation, it takes research. Sometimes i get calls and people say i want to be in business will you get me some money and i say no because i dont know how to do that so weve got to really do our own research and homework and be inspired and motivated and have the courage to take some chances, take some risks. Youve got the degrees and talent, you have what it takes, just youve got to live up to your possibilities. I want you to thank the panelists for being here today. Mr. Williams, a big round of applause. I think you for coming. This was a well attended workshop, but i am so pleased and i hope that you leave here not only inspired, but fired up and ready to go to get your own business and become the entrepreneur that you are or help somebody else to do it. Thank you very much. Please stand and take your applause. [applause] [inaudible conversations]