KMC Forums - Reginald F. Lewis

Here's a guy some(or few) of you guys and gals here, might of heard
about a long time ago.

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Reginald F. Lewis was born in December 7, 1942 - January 19, 1993.

He was also born in Baltimore, Maryland and became one of the most
successful business leaders during the 1980s. He grew up in a middle
class Baltimore neighborhood. He won a football scholarship to Virginia
State College(Now Virginia State University), graduating with a degree
in economics in 1965. He graduated at Harvard Law School in 1968.

In 1992, Forbes magazine listed Lewis among the 400 richest Americans
with a net worth estimated at $400 million.

Recruited to a top New York law firm immediately after law school,
Lewis left to start his own firm two years later. After almost 20 years
as a corporate lawyer with his own practice, Lewis moved to the other
side of the table by creating TLC Group L.P., a venture capital firm in
1983. His first major deal was the purchase of the McCall Pattern
Company, a home sewing pattern business. He later sold the company
at a trememdous profit for investors.

In 1987, Lewis bought Beatrice International Foods from Beatrice
Companies for $985 million, renaming it TLC Beatrice International,
a snack food, beverage and grocery store conglomerate that was the
largest black-owned and black-managed business inthe U.S. The deal
was partly financed through Mike Milken of the maverick investment
bank Drexel Burnham Lambert.

When TLC Beatrice reported revenue of 1.8 billion in 1987, it became
the first black-owned company to have more than $1 billion in annual
sales.

At it's peak in 1996, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. had sales
of $2.2 billion and was number 512 on Fortune magazine's list of 1,000
largest companies. He was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity, Inc.

He died from brain cancer at age 50.