Transcripts For CSPAN2 Finance 20240703

Should not be apologetic, am i right . So dont take a picture, make a picture, lets go out there and go to war. I wasnt on the program, but i am the program. [laughter] [applause] at the event. [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 if they want to somebody who speaks spanish higher somebody who speaks spanish, doesnt have to be you. Sometimes we have to get over that we have to do everything from a to z. We need collaborations, partnerships, we need to team up. Sometimes we team up with people who dont look like us to get to the end goal. I guarantee you Mister Smiths employers are not all black and neither are mine are neither Mister Williams. Sometimes people just want somebody else in the room because they feel more comfortable. So do we. Your job as a Business Owners to execute. Thank you. [applause]. Im out of boston and nevada. I have a question that i hope our specialists can address. Often times as businesses we try to create the second black bank in the nation and we had 40 individuals excited about the possibility and when we requested those individuals to make the necessary contributions to get started we lost 70 of the group. The question that i have is as individuals become more important in the economic process in terms of responsibility they are less accessible. To be able to speak to an individual such as yourself to come into spaces where we can do that. The question is for people who dont have the opportunities, how do we get those individuals to be able to connect in a way to resources, what advice is given to help them do that because a lot of folks are in community and discouraged, even as cdf i you have to compete to get the designation. To be able to do that i would like to get your insights on how some of this stuff can be i dont want to be circumvented but thats the word i want to use. Mr. Smith said it when talking about the internship and opportunities. I got declined by the first time and full time. You had to have that resilience. You have two part of resilience, one is the paperwork with all due respect, dont treat it, dont make a demigod, it is just filling out forms. Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes a year but you got to have the resilience to get through. Second thing you talked about was investors. All of us have to put ourselves in the right room with the right audience to get to investors. Anyone who has a true investor story has heard more nos than yes. You got to just keep going. To be clear, this is all of our story. You are not isolated in that scenario. I would add to that the importance of expanding your networks, you got to be in the room, got to ask for the business to be there and let people know you can do it. Expanding your network is always important, whether the network divide you with access, Capital Access to business because sometimes you dont need external capital, you need clients, customers that provide you with business that generates revenue, but you need relationships to get the opportunity. Let me add a little bit. Not only do we seem to have opportunities that we create in government such as cds is and other opportunities available through infrastructure where we should be advancing the possibility of charging stations and other kinds of things wise it we have that and people dont know about it. Great question. I tend to think as black businesses we havent learned how to follow the money. We talk about it. Im going to go sports and come back. They say i want to be a basketball player, okay, two people already told you what to do. Kobe said practice for two more hours, and take a hundred for you loads. Thats what they said they do and that is how they got to the look at the Business Owner side. Are you practicing 2 hours a day. At 4 30 this morning i woke up and practiced, why . Because im interviewing for somebody, some funder, some state, some agency, some investor, somebody. Youtube universities there, you can study, you can learn any discipline you want, there are books that have already been written about this, 10,000 hours you can learn any industry. Not from gladwell outliers. 10,000, thats 5 years. Any industry you will become a genius in that industry. Become a master. Congresswoman waters, if you read policy what does the government do . Government is a little slow to execute but they write whats going to happen in the future. Broadband and clean energy is where the money is going. Anybody who doesnt see that, 1. 7 billion a day is spent in clean energy. I dont care what you do. If you are Marketing Company, i am a Marketing Company for clean energy. If you are a lawyer i am a lawyer for clean energy, just say it, manifest it, do it, you got to know where the money is going and that is what we have to do, we have to know where the money is going and react accordingly. Did you people are getting funding, you need to keep going around asking whatever you think the next source will because someone will say i dont know but heres the person you should speak to or here is the place you should check so youre often not far from the answer. Thats very important. Good afternoon. Im not a Business Owner or anything that matters. Please speak up. I am actually a student which leads into my question. What advice do you give young people like myself who are in the beginning stages of their career and interested in equity and some of us get this exposure to these topics depending on our majors and some like myself dont get this exposure at all, being a Political Science major in 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, first thing you can do, i am sure you have friends who feel the same way you do. 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 her and a number of her friends who were investing together and they wanted some general, highlevel ideas and thoughts on how to make investments. These were people, none of whom were finance professionals but they just said we want to make investments so how do we learn about the Financial Market so i spoke to them about one segment. Every week they would have someone come in. He happen to be in her case a treasurer of the state of connecticut so she had access to people who after top who would come in and talk. Whether it is you investing in a friends idea that relates to a business, that is one way. Someone who is looking at stocks and says what is a 5 stock we use most, what do we think is most important to our daily lives for the operation of businesses or the success of our economy and make assessments that way. There are so many simple ways you can do better, just say put my foot in and learn. You can read and get anything online, get digital tutorials but sooner or later you want to start practicing. You just decide whether it is a more conservative, i want to invest in treasury bonds, not earnings that much so want to do something else. Just, you have access to this to see what is happening, most interesting. Good afternoon. My name is shannon herbert. Im with inclusive credit and stratify, we work to promote financial inclusion, we recently partnered with the Beneficial State Foundation to launch the pilot program. These 20 lenders we are working over the next two years basically pledged to change something in their underwriting standards so they can reach more black and brown borrowers. My question to you is how do we attract additional investment for technology. What we found with these lenders some of which are mbis, credit unions, traditional banks, they want to do great work but dont have access to Innovative Technology and the funds that go into these organizations are not designated for technology. They want capital on the street but if you have one person running a credit shop or two people responsible for Loan Servicing you cat cant get servicing as quickly as you would like so how do we make the case for additional investment for technology. Our strategy is we have two types of investments, we have investments operations, tech is inclusive of operations. When you are in the room, in a network, what you want to do is ask the question. The example, i will say they will say coffee. I will say is there a sign that says Dunkin Donuts doesnt sell pizza . They sell coffee. Think of banks and investors, theres no sign that says what we dont do. There is only a sign about what we do do but you forgot to ask those questions. Every Business Owner, someone there are three questions to ask, number one, do you finance or invest in businesses like me . Im not talking race, im talking my industry, what i do. Second thing, do you finance dollar amounts . Some people find one hundred million at above. Some People Finance one million and below but theres no sign on the front door. The third one is do you finance my use of proceeds, do you finance technology and the answer could be yes. Thats all we do, or no, we dont do that at all. You are just in the wrong room. I mean that with respect of course but you want to ask those three questions and confine yourself to the right place. A lot of people do it on the west coast, a little more than the east coast, but if you get yourself in the room and ask those questions. Depending on what you are trying to do, funds that we set up that lend money to Small Businesses, not necessarily in technology but Small Businesses almost all of our money came from Technology Companies who said if you have a business, in an adjacent industry 2 hours where we could serve as a partner, customer, resource, we are happy to do that so we have apple, microsoft, ebay, comcast, all these Companies Invest in our funds but we call them to say we are investing in this company, what do you think, before we invest, what do you think of that line of business but once we make the investment we say are you able to be a customer, are you able to be a partner that helps of this company get up to speed in terms of their capabilities . How can you be a benefit and that is one thing, sometimes the companies that are the big ones you look at have an arm that does look to put money into the community as well. Let me Say Something for a moment. This is very, it is so fundamental that i almost dont want to bring it up but i am in a community where we have wonderful cleaners and it is just overwhelmed with support from the neighborhood. Practically no place to put another hanger. And they are still writing tickets. We supposedly have Economic Development out of la county. I got them to go over to talk with them about what they could do to not only provide the technologies, expand the business, this business is so big until you could have several units in it. The la county, went over, and they said you need money. He said i know i need that. I asked you to come over and talk to me about how to put this together where i could look for some funds to do the expansion i need to do. It never happened. What i am saying is we have some businesses that are doing very well and are supported by the community but they need the intersection in order to do better and to expand. There is a niche that you alluded to where if you guys are trying to do more funding or the department of commerce is doing what they are supposed to be doing if we can put to gather something that really highlights the need for upgrading the technology and Small Businesses targeted towards Small Business, that business, minority businesses all over the country, we could help grow these businesses but they do need assistance in order to do so. My Community Everybody loves our cleaners, hes got more work than he can handle. I want to do something about it. That is happening in any of your communities . Something that you said, there are a couple of businesses we lend money to where we realized great businesses but either the Business Owner knows how to do the one thing that got them started, not the breadth of knowledge and skills to be able to address the next challenge that will take them to the next level. One example was a company in the pharmaceutical industry, we lent money to them. They had to build out to take on more business, to get traditional, safe, technology, they just managed the inventory of drugs. That required some construction. He had the money but it takes a certain skill set to be able to manage the construction process so you can have safe, built, 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 matter of days to get them to knock out a door and take down the wall. If you dont do that, you can be out of business and that is the challenge and that is what we tried to do, to do this as quickly as possible. You dont have three months construction time when you can start manufacturing drugs, you have three weeks and that is it. I think that we need to provide more support, that niche of people that can help our businesses that need those kinds of things that businesses would not know how to find them necessarily, to take part of their profits and pay for it because they dont understand the cost of it, but if we and what we do come up with of that money to provide it to those, i used to call it consultants but its more than that. Lets talk about how we do that when we talk about the next appropriations. No matter where it is in government we can get it done. Next. I think it is over here. My name is sharon kent with the hbc you community developed action coalition. I lead a program called our Money Matters which is a free online Financial Literacy platform geared toward hpc students, staff, faculty and surrounding communities, in addition to the Financial Literacy arm of our Money Matters we have entrepreneurship, Economic Development, clean energy, i was paying attention, im a Financial Literacy company. Im a clean energy company, im a real estate 11 company and economic developed in company. With all of that said we currently have the ourmoneymatters. Com for those who want to go to the website, our muchmoneymatters. Com has been funded for the last two years with 5. 6 million grant from wells fargo. And so because of that grant we been able to make this program to 28 hbc yous, we have over 15,000 students using the platform every day to improve their financial liquidity. That is exciting. So what i am looking for our new investors which i want to diversify our investments partners, but also want to bring this platform to all one hundred 7 hbc yous and 300 plus minority serving institutions so im here asking if you gentlemen would be interested in investing in our company, in our work and if not do you know those who would be interested in doing so and i will be here for this entire conference and i can meet you after word and we can talk in more detail. Thank you. I need to know more about your business, we can certainly talk after and then the sea because 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 a return . Dont want to have the whole conversation here if you have more questions to ask but 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 innocent and exonerated. We have the Innocence Project that will be there talking about the work that they are doing for those that have been incarcerated, who have been found guilty, not really guilty and the Innocence Project and two other projects involved in this, they go in and do the investigation and have to determine if this person truly is innocence, but they ve been incarcerated unfairly they will get them out, they will get them exonerated. If you want to go through, from 3 to 4 p. M. Pm in room 145 be, many sitting in the audience have been incarcerated, you have family members whove been incarcerated, you know they didnt have the money and they got railroaded so you want to know about this, feel free to join us after this in room 145 be, 3 to 4 00 p. M. We dont want anyone else to join the line, we want to take care of the people in line. Our guests have been very generous with their time so who is next on what side . I think you are next over here. I am next. I am a scholastic reporter and im very thankful for this Engaging Panel that you have all provided. My question specifically is in regards to who motivated all of you to pursue this field of entrepreneurship. The field is difficult to pursue and theres likely chance of failure but africanamericans have been subjugated again in this industry with the wealth gap and whatnot. How have you been motivated and who motivated you to carry out these ideals and how can we inspire future generations, the kids of the day who become the leaders of tomorrow . [applause] it goes without saying i motivated by you. [applause] i am, like many people, it started for me in church so there has to be the ground Mister Williams talked about in terms of family upbringing, then i got a chance to see those who were performing when i got to sit on the board i was 26, the youngest person before me was 56. I spent a lot of time, i got this real basic thing, god gave me two years and one mouth. Listen. When you get an opportunity to sit with people and listen to people, ask questions. I asked chairwoman waters questions. Sometimes it comes out with a lecture but i just listen and i learn because theres so much experience that people have that you can gain from and im going to leave you with this. Unfortunately in our community we like to redo and other communities they skip steps. I want to be a community that skip steps. We learn from someone else, learn their success, their mistakes and go on our own way but we skip that step. Thats what i hope for you. Actually great response. I mentioned a couple of examples of where i saw entrepreneurship whether it is my fathers activity, the people i work for, and others, but then theres the question of one thing to understand entrepreneurship, another thing to find your self in a situation where you are going to take the risk and pursue it because thats a financially risky proposition. What i will say i decided to actually make my own departure from the corporate world, it was really something that was a result of my being dissatisfied with some decisions, very specific things. It came down to i remember working in Investment Bank i said to my wife, if i dont get this bonus or more this year for the work that i have been doing i am going to leave and start my own firm, but during the months leading up to that date when i got that bonus i spend every night working on this Business Plan so that i wasnt going to leave out of an emotional reaction, im angry, didnt get what i wanted. It was now i am prepared so when they gave me the number, funny how would only barely missed what i was looking for but i was true to my word, i am leaving but 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 or gave me the confidence to say im still going to leave because i thought about it. Preparing is a great way to give your selfconfidence when you go out on your own, not just because im angry if something didnt go right in the position that i have. Thank you. Next over here. Thank you. My name is doctor jackson from new york. We got an organization, all right. A big issue in our community, african america, this is a question, you are here, your honor, maybe you can talk about it. How to empower the Financial Community in a broken family. Our family is broken. How you can tell someone to get to money and mentally is not able, how you can help this person, our community, our community in support, how you can help someone to make money, how you can do that . Great question. Two answers i have for you, one, mr. Smith said this, everybody plays a role, so while youre absolutely right there are people in our community are affected and going to their own trials and personal tribulations, theres a whole group that are not and sometimes people who are not are going to carry the burden for those who are. Thats number one. Number 2, storms dont last, so no matter what someone is going through i think it is our job to give them the positivity, the 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, dont know why they took that risk, because mathematically it doesnt work for my brain. But then people start with a lot of money. Bottom line, its different strokes for different folks but i think entrepreneurship as you heard in the chairwomans comment needs to be a significant part of our wealth as we move forward. Because other things weve counted unlike homeownership etc. Are not the Wealth Builders we thought they would be. I will just add if you have the tenacity, you can start a business out of complete desperation and make it work. So if you dont have the capital. Ive heard from multiple sources networks will come to 0 in a couple years. What can we do to combat that and what is the best institution to give money and loans etc. . I hope it doesnt come to 0. I think, we talked a little but about this but we have to learn to follow the money and we have to recognize when theres an opportunity. I live in southern california. It is cheaper for you to start a franchise or to buy a franchise than it is for you to buy a house but there still people who like ive got to buy this house but you could buy that subway, you could build wealth just the same and you could live in your apartment or the current house you have or condo and sometimes there is a mindset in us being directed to things that 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 in the business if you are not going to do it your self. Thats where the money is going. We cant be more plain. Thank you, next. Thank you, everyone. For your participation in this panel. It is great information. Can you hear me . I am from southcentral and i run black pack and we are Political Action organization doing work to get reparations for black americans. The question i had, i love the title of this panel, which is closing the wealth gap. The way to do that is getting reparations for black americans. I want to know what is the role 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 role is for black millionaires and billionaires . Okay. Give chris a hard one. That the complex issue. I often struggle with what is best for our community . Our reparations that just go to everyone regardless of their capacity to handle the money responsibly, is that the answer . And while we could do so many things to provide people with support and investing, making sound financial decisions. I am going to the heart of that. What do you do to make the reparations 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 effectively to the black community, where it is needed, instead of just broadly, if this is what you have in mind in terms of the reparations that you envision instead of fretting it out across the community regardless of someones ability to successfully deploy that money and benefit from it longterm so that is not an answer to your question but there are things we need to look at, may be reparations where the money goes to certain funds that are deployed, accessed, and deployed by those in our community that can make more sense than broadly giving the money without having it targeted. You dont believe black millionaires and billionaires should fund efforts to acquire the to politically acquire reparations . They should play a role in supporting the political efforts to raise the quality of life and standards in our community. This is just me. I dont know that i would say i want to put my Political Capital behind broadly saying reparations is the answer because i personally think theres so much more, so many businesses that someone might deserve 500 and they end up employing 20 people and thats a plus and someone else might not give them 20,000 and then it is gone and what have we done . So i think, it is a choice. You say, do we go ahead and fight that herculean battle and when and find that somehow it was so inefficient because so much of the money did not go where it could be more effective in effecting the greatest number of lives and i dont know without knowing the specifics of the plan that you might have, say, reparations broadly going to be the answer to our problems. I think i would say we are not ready yet. Thats the honest truth, let me tell you why. Three years ago bunch of corporations said they would give us billions of dollars, three years from now we are fighting a Supreme Court ruling. Have any of you stop drinking the product, eating at the stores, using their stuff . We are not ready. I am saying that to you from from a different lens. What i am saying is we need to figure out how to mobilize and take action in the community. Money does not solve that. The answer to your question is yes because i know what to do with the money, just being real about me. To to mr. Williamss point weve got to have a plan. We cant ask people like congresswoman waters to go get us reparations and not have a plan. Ive got a different word i cant say publicly. We cant do that. So i salute you and what you are doing because your question and your journey starts us on the plan. We need some microcosms of what we are going to do to create the bigger plan and what you are doing in central la, youre figuring it out, going through trial and error and you are going to say that doesnt work, that does work, this is what we should do. So we need you. Let me be clear about that but chairman waters said it, 15 trillion. Lets be clear. 15 trillion, if the whites dont get any money. If they keep getting money the number rose. Right . Someone wrote a check for 15 trillion honestly, half of you, do you know what you are going to do with and if your thought was not investment, wasnt about education, wasnt about broadband, clean energy and these other things, we got the wrong mindset right now so i do think what you are doing should be saluted, but i think we are not there yet and i hope we get there. You are in california. Youre in california so you know we had the Reparations Task force completed, their words, they are doing their work, right . California, legislative black caucus, they want to educate the general public on reparations and they are trying to raise money to actually see that through so that is why i am asking, you dont know if theres a plan but there is a plan, theres been recommendations, studies have been done especially in california. Just asking people who have the means, what is that responsibly and how to contribute to these efforts even if its california black legislative black caucus . To this point, thank you for the discussion. Charlie weber, secretary of state, did a great effort on reparations and they did come up with a plan and i believe the governor, the governor may have got into the plan at some point but now i am told the governor said we dont have the money to do it anyway. All right. Reparations is a difficult and complicated fight. I think it should be pursued and also we should not stop pursuing our ability to close the wealth gap in some of the ways you heard about here today. Pay attention. Get on the internet. Search for things. Make up words that you think make good sense that will get you some information and go out there and figure out how you are going to get that money. You mostly dont know about the cdf i. I want you to go and get on the platform and find out about the cdf is and then make a call or whatever you want to do 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, what you get me some money and i said no, i dont know how to do that like that. 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, look at some possible niches, be creative. Youve got the brains, youve got the talent, you have what it takes, youve got to live up to your possibilities. I want you to thank our panelists for being here today. Miss williams, give them a big round of applause. I thank you for coming. This was a well attended workshop that i am so pleased about and i hope you leave here and i hope i inspired but be ready to go to get your own business, become the entrepreneur you are excited about or help somebody else to do it and less work to closing this wealth gap, thank you very much, please stand and take your applause. Okay. [inaudible conversations] [applause] [inaudible conversations]