Finalist: Janice Bryant Howroyd

Founder & CEO
The ActOne Group

Janice Bryant Howroyd, the first African American woman to found a multibillion-dollar company, launched The ActOne Group in L.A. in 1978. The workforce and staffing solutions company has since provided millions of jobs across the globe. Operating in over 32 countries and 24 languages, ‘JBH’ leads with humanity, discipline and excellence instilled in her childhood, where she weathered a segregated education in the Deep South. She was appointed U.S. Ambassador of Energy in 2013 and in 2016 appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.