THROUGH THE YEARS

1. Dr. Rose Anonat — Officer in Charge, The Lewis College, Sorsogon, Philippines

2. Robert C. Clark, Esq. — Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Harvard Law School Austin Wakeman Scott Professor, Cambridge, MA

3. George L. Russell, Jr. Esq. — First African American to serve as Associate Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore, MD and later, in another first, was appointed City Solicitor

4. Dr. Barney J. Wilson, — Principal, Reginald F. Lewis High School of Business and Law, Baltimore, MD

5. Dr. Keith T. Miller, — President, Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA

Memorable Photos

Loida Nicolas Lewis Biography

Ponchitta Pierce Biography

Foreword

Kenneth I. Chenault

When I was a young man, Reginald Lewis came to the Black Law Students Association at Harvard to talk about his alma mater, his early days as a lawyer and the decision to start his own firm. He was intense. He was focused. His entrepreneurial spirit was inspiring. It was clear that we were hearing from a man who was going to make a difference in the world around him.

Even to a first-year law student, it was apparent that Reggie was not a man to let barriers get in the way. He had big ideas and he was going to make them a reality—in the legal profession and in the world of business.

When Reggie set his sights on leveraged buyouts, it wasn’t long before he completed his first successful deal for the McCall Pattern Company in 1984. He broke new ground a few years later when he orchestrated what at the time was the largest off shore leveraged buyout–the $985 million purchase of Beatrice International Foods.

As head of the most significant black-owned business in the nation, he paved the way for a generation of African American business leaders who followed. His combination of business excellence and personal achievement set a standard that withstands the passage of time.

I had the good fortune to know Reggie, not just as an outstanding entrepreneur, but as a man who cared deeply about giving back to the community and helping others succeed.

Reggie left us twenty years ago at the young age of fifty, but his legacy endures at places like The Lewis International Law Center at Harvard, which he established to help train the legal profession’s next generation of leaders.

It also endures through the work of his wonderful wife and partner, Loida. Her leadership at the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation makes possible initiatives such as the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. The Museum, which collects, preserves, interprets, documents and exhibits the rich history of Maryland’s African Americans, is located in Baltimore where Lewis was born and grew up.

Reginald Lewis had a favorite saying that underscored his approach to life and business. It has inspired many of the people who contributed to this book: “Keep going no matter what.”

Kenneth I. Chenault

Chairman and CEO

American Express Company

Introduction

Loida Nicolas Lewis

It hardly seems like twenty years since the passing of my husband, Reginald F. Lewis. In many ways he is still a constant presence.

We met when, after I had been sworn in as a lawyer in the Philippines, I was in New York as part of a world tour with my sister Imelda Nicolas. Reginald’s Harvard Law classmate, Reynaldo Glover, suggested that I meet Reg as a blind date. This was the beginning of a wonderful twenty-five-year relationship, which only ended with his death after a brief illness on January 19, 1993.

God is good in that I was given the gift of meeting Reginald and of becoming his wife, lover, friend and mother to our two daughters, Leslie and Christina. The things that impressed me most about him were his vision, ambition, integrity and tenacity. Most of all, he was a family man who enjoyed the simple joys of extended family reunions and camaraderie.

The world took notice of my beloved when he engineered the nearly $1 billion leveraged buyout of Beatrice International Foods in 1987.

When he died, among the things Reginald left unfinished, that I took on, was the book of his life he was writing about. He titled it, “Why should white guys have all the fun?”

Together with Rene “Butch” Meily, the company’s Public Relations executive, we engaged journalist Blair Walker to finish the book and then to have it published by John Wiley & Sons. In 1994, “Why should white guys have all the fun?” How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire was published and made the best-seller list in Business Week. Since that time, many men and women who read “Why should white guys have all the fun?” have been inspired to “reach for the stars” so to speak.

In addition, the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation that my husband started in 1987 continues his tradition by helping people, with emphasis on supporting educational and cultural institutions.

In this book, Keep Going No Matter What—The Reginald F. Lewis Legacy: 20 Years Later, some of the people inspired by my husband share their thoughts and insights into how Reginald F Lewis, or his book, impacted their lives and what they have learned from him.

Ponchitta Pierce has listened to these observations and written them for this book, which also includes comments from the leaders of some of the institutions that have been supported by the Foundation.

In all things, may God be glorified!

Loida Nicolas Lewis

Thanksgiving Day, 2012

New York City

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Hoefsmit

Michael “Mike” Muse

MICHAEL “MIKE” MUSE is Co-Founder and CEO of Detroit-based Muse Recordings, an independent record label; a hip-hop radio and TV personality; producer of a Broadway play; and guest commentator on the business of music, pop culture, and politics at highly-rated urban radio stations and colleges around the country.

I joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity at the University of Michigan. We fraternity brothers were always recounting stories of notable Kappas and Reginald Lewis’s name always came up. One thing Reginald taught was very transferrable skills. He was a lawyer, yet he went on to become owner and CEO of a multinational food company through the most brilliant leveraged buyout of our time. I don’t think anything in law school can prepare you for that. I started out as an engineer doing nuclear chemical research. Now I’m running a successful music record label.

I remember reading the book, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, and I thought, “Oh, this is easy, anybody can do that.” I had visions of what it would be like, the mission statement, the business statement, how I would differentiate myself from the rest of the other independent record labels out there. Let me tell you, I got told “no” quite often. But just as Reginald did, I went back to the drawing board and kept re-tweaking. I had the unbelievable tenacity to find a yes behind every no. That’s what Reginald did. I wasn’t afraid to fail and to say how can I make this better, to get to a point where we can get a yes or no, and finally Muse Recordings happened. Reginald Lewis was a huge model in terms of benchmarking what life could be. No one could put you in a box and that was brilliant.

Although you are a financial genius, it’s not about attitude, but about having access to capital, to the right people who can validate you within these circles. It doesn’t matter what your GPA was coming out of college. It’s who do you know that can get you into the rooms to meet these partners that will make people comfortable doing business with you, especially if you’re an unknown African American. At the time that Reginald was coming up, which makes the story that much more brilliant, was the fact that here’s an unknown African American male who is entering essentially a world that is controlled by white men. With an unknown track record, not only did he prove himself, he was able to enter into this world and have great success and be one of the greats at it.

It’s the same thing within the music industry. It doesn’t matter how creative you are, you can be the most creative genius in the whole wide world. If you don’t have access to those who have positions to say yes to your records, to radio play, to partnerships, to advertising campaigns, that means your product won’t get heard. There are so many great musicians out there right now who don’t even have the ability to get their music out. There are no outlets provided to them. They don’t have the resources or access to them. It all comes down to finding that yes within every no. Those are the ones who win. But it comes from that unbelievable drive that Reginald had, to keep fighting at all costs, to keep pushing forward.

I’m with three unknown producers who have never produced a Broadway play before and we have this goal in mind of making the Richard Pryor story a reality on Broadway. And we’re fighting tooth and nail to make it happen. It’s going to take some finessing, hard work, blood, sweat and tears, which we’re going through right now. But who’s to tell us we can’t do it? With every no, I just get more inspired to find a yes, which gives me the incredible drive to do it.

I was having lunch with a mentee, a recent graduate of a high school in New York City that represents some underserved populations. As part of his graduation gift I gave him the Reginald Lewis book because it just shows a young person there is no barrier to you. It’s not about your starting point. It’s about how you finish. You may be dealt a hand that may not be the best of cards to play. But the point is, you do have a card somewhere that you can play within your deck and you’ve got to use it the best way you can.

Mellody Hobson

MELLODY HOBSON is Chairwoman of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., and President of Chicago-based Ariel Investments—which manages more than $43 billion in assets—and Chairwoman of Mutual Funds. Ariel is reportedly among the largest American-owned money management and mutual fund companies in the United States.

The surprise was that Reginald Lewis could make it happen, find that level of funding and execute the transaction as flawlessly as he did. I got a sense he was all consumed with his work and that ultimately he was going to be the guy who died with his boots on.