Black Enterprise celebrates 40 years of listing America's largest black companies

theGRIO REPORT - Black Enterprise will celebrate their 40th year of listing Americas top earning black companies in Chicago this week. The Black Enterprise list of 100 component companies has been lauded as the foremost respected analysis and ranking of the nation’s top grossing black owned companies...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

Black Enterprise will celebrate their 40th year of listing Americas top-earning black companies in Chicago this week.  The Black Enterprise list of 100 component companies has been lauded as the foremost respected analysis and ranking of the nation’s top grossing black owned companies. BE began compiling its list in 1973. At that time, the combined sales for the 100 companies on the list totaled $473. In the forty years that the magazine has been ranking business, that number has grown to $18.7 billion.

The list has made the June Issue one of Black Enterprise’s most anticipated publications of the year.

“While a monumental undertaking, it’s truly is a labor of love for us to report the state of African American business success in the U.S., highlighting the achievements of intrepid entrepreneurs at the helms of top-flight organizations while informing our audience exactly how these BE 100s CEOs and their teams build and maintain sustainable enterprises,” says Black Enterprise president & CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr.

“Year after year, while reporting on the moves of the best of the best, we are constantly surprised and awed by their boundless ingenuity. They ideate [sic] and innovate and then execute and excel, and we’re proud to celebrate this achievement,” he continued.

An Awards dinner, hosted by Dell, will be held in Chicago this weekend. The dinner is expected to draw more than 1000 African-American executives, business owners, and professionals. Black Enterprise has become the leading source in business, investing and wealth building for African-Americans.

The 100 business rankings issue of Black Enterprise hits newsstands on June 5, 2012.
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