Business View Magazine l October 2022

84 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 working at NMSDC, I’d like to mention several who have had a tremendous impact on me during my time here. They include Marc Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and current president and CEO of the National Urban League; Dave Steward, chairman and founder of World Wide Technology, the largest African- American-owned businesses in America; and John Rogers of Ariel Investments, which founded the first black owned investment firm with $16.8 billion asset under his management as of June 2021.” NMSDC has a dedicated team comprised of 30 employees working out of its New York office and hundreds more across its countrywide network of affiliates. Despite this, McGuire says the organization needs a lot more resources to fulfill its mandate faster than it is currently doing. “We have few resources to tackle one of the biggest challenges in our society, which is closing the racial wealth gap through entrepreneurship and wealth creation,” McGuire says. “We continue to call on society for more financial resources, in-kind contributions, policy support, optimal access to opportunities, capital for MBEs, business relationships, knowledge and technology transfer.” With unprecedented things happening on the government side, like the $1.3 trillion infrastructure bill and the recently passed bipartisan $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, NMSDC is working with local, state, and federal governments to make sure MBEs are not left behind. “These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that can help many generations of marginalized American communities finally catch up,” McGuire adds. NMSDC offers minority-owned businesses certification and value-added services to scale their businesses. NMSDC certified MBEs have C access to many benefits: exposure to other MBEs, business opportunity fairs, capacity building, contract opportunities, executive