Former los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson is the first minority entrepreneur to receive the Southern California Minority Business Development Council’s Leadership Award.
Magic Johnson
While most of the world knows Johnson for his basketball skills and joyful enthusiasm while winning five NBA championships in the 1980s, he also has amassed a $700 million fortune with Magic Johnson Enterprises and Johnson Development specializing in revitalizing urban neighborhoods.
As chairman and chief executive officer of the corporation bearing his name, Johnson has helped revitalize minority urban communities, providing jobs and contracting opportunities for minorityowned companies and service vendors. Since 1993, his company has established a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Howard Schultz, head of Starbucks to form Urban Coffee Opportunities with 90 locations in ethnically diverse neighborhoods nationwide.
“The Leadership Award has traditionally been given to the chairman or CEO of a major corporation whose achievements and leadership in the business community have resulted in positive results for small and minority-owned businesses,” said Council President John Murray.
Johnson said, “When I first started, 10 banks turned me down. It’s amazing how far we’ve come.”
His various ventures employ more than 50,000 minorities in 91 cities, he added.
The Minority Business Development Council, formerly the Southern California Regional Purchasing Council, represents more than 1,200 minority business enterprises and 200 corporate members in 13 California counties. It was founded in 1975.
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