Message from the CEO Just last month, we got the sad news of the passing of inventor, businessman, entrepreneur, and loving father, Dana Emerson. He was the quintessential entrepreneur and a very hard worker. I recall in the very first issue of Black to Business magazine in Spring 1997, how coy he was about his invention. He would later on become one of our early investments. He traveled with us on the first Boston Trade Mission. He was a seasoned business owner having dabbled in the flooring and carpeting retail market, before what became his innovative venture.
From May 2019 when Dianne Kelderman and her team at Nova Scotia Cooperative Council asked us to be part of planning President Obama’s visit, to the night of the event in November, we were on cloud nine. One of the major highlights of the night was Candace Thomas of Stewart McKelvey’s remarkably touching welcome message from the African Nova Scotian community. We were made proud. It is difficult to believe that we are now all held captive by COVID-19. This is a health crisis that will change every single aspect of life. It’s not unrealistic to say that the world has changed, never to go back to what it was a mere three or four months ago. Before the pandemic, black businesses were already continuously working at a deficit. Struggling to find ways to overcome decades of systematic marginalization and inequality while adopting the new technology needed to survive in the digital age. We were starting to gain some traction among newer and younger entrepreneurs, but, collectively, we had not broken through.
The title of the article was ‘Dana Emerson’s Bright Idea’. Interestingly, by the time we went to press, he had not divulged what the idea was. Danna had developed an innovative solution to a major environmental hazard in the workplace. His product christened as the ‘Bulb Eater’ was an environmentally safe way to dispose of fluorescent bulbs and remove the inert gases. He continued to innovate and modify it over the years.
Black voices are generally excluded from business and economic conversations that define the future of our economy and industries. We are just not invited to the table. Even so, COVID-19 has raised a mirror in front of the face of government and industries to reflect on the damage that is done to vulnerable communities rendering us defenceless at such a time.
We have lost a very good businessman and member of our community. Our condolences go out to his wife Debra and family.
Black communities are undervalued. Our companies are overrepresented in the service and construction sectors. “Mom and Pop”, a term of endearment that recognizes the doggedness and regality in owning a business, is rarely applied to blackowned businesses. Our History has taught us that the most vulnerable are left behind, and a similar pattern will likely occur post COVID-19. Institutional change is inevitable. Because if not now, when?
We had planned to revisit the powerful experience we had when we hosted President Barack Obama last November in this issue of B2B. What we did not anticipate, was that the world would be in the grasp of COVID-19. In late October 2008, we were delegates at a National Minority Supplier Diversity business conference in Las Vegas. We watched with excitement as America elected and celebrated the victory of their first Black President Looking back now, those were the good days. Tiger Woods was on top of the world of Golf and Barack Hussein Obama had been elected President of the United States. These two exceptionally significant achievements certainly gave hope to not only an often marginalized people of African descent, but the entire world.
BLACK to BUSINESS
S.I. Rustum Southwell BBI, Founding and Interim CEO
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Summer 2020
