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Carolyn Love puts minority suppliers together with big business. In the end, she makes her point Morgan Bassey feared he would never get the break his small
African-American firm needed to compete in the investment banking industry.
Harvestons Securities faced certain failure with only a few years under its
belt, too little capital, and no name recognition. But Bassey�s future changed for the better one year ago when he met Carolyn Love, executive director of Minority Enterprises, Inc. Love�s tenacity and understanding helped Bassey forge a relationship with Roy Alexander, the finance director of the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. That relationship turned into a business opportunity for Bassey when his company was chosen to sell bonds used to build low-income housing for the finance authority. For the past 25 years, Minority Enterprises, Inc. has provided corporate and government entities with increased access to the goods and services of minority-owned businesses like Bassey�s investment firm. And the small businesses that have benefited from Carolyn Love�s leadership say she is the right person to lead the organization that makes sure minority companies have their chance at a hunk of the corporate pie. �I call it the economic food chain,� Love says. �Hewlett Packard was started in a garage. The same way H-P had to rely on big business in order to become one is how small business grow. Small businesses need to be able to do business with larger businesses. It�s important for everybody to be able to have an opportunity to grow into a big business.� At a trade fair in August, MEI unveiled a new name, image and logo as the Rocky Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council. It was necessary for two reasons, insists Love. Although MEI�s name was well known throughout the Rocky Mountain Empire, what the actually did was relatively unknown. �It was like having a company named Coca-Cola without having anyone know that it was a bottled drink,� says the 49-year-old Love. �People are very loyal to the name MEI. But when I ask them what it is that we do, they don�t know.�
The Building Blocks of Success we are born to this earth without instruction. Often it�s said that you can learn how to be a doctor, but there is no degree for parenting. You can become a referee and learn the rules of a game, but there is no rulebook on how to grow up properly. And though we pick up tips here and there�from our high school counselors, college professors, and most definitely our parents�no one really teaches you how to make it in the world of business or even the game of life. That is, of course, unless you have a mentor. We can take the old saying �Behind every great man is a woman� a step further by saying that behind every great person is someone who supported, believed in, and encouraged him or her. Whether it�s the new college hire at the office, the little one you met through Big Brother/Big Sister, or the high-school-age child of that single neighbor on your street, we each have opportunities to have tremendous impact on those who come behind us. Following are three outstanding individuals who embrace mentoring as a part of their makeup. Each is successful in his or her own right, their one common thread being that they believe giving back is essential to rounding out the success of any one individual�s life and career. Retired Army Colonel Anthony C. Aiken; Gregory S. Horton, human resource director of the Pepsi Cola Company work�ing out of the Denver Region Office; and Cheryl Rowles-Stokes, Esq., director of Human Resources for R & A Management in Denver, are the embodiment of successful careers and home lives. Though they hail from different backgrounds and worlds of experience, these well-round�ed individuals live by an empowering set of standards: they always see themselves as part of a bigger picture, and they give back to the people and the communities around them.
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