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NEWS AFRICA BUSINESS CONFERENCE HELD AT CAREY
WALKING A MILE IN THEIR SHOES
1960s–1990s
By Andrew Blumberg
It is the second-largest continent in the world, bigger than the United States, China, and Europe combined. Its $1.4 trillion in consumer spending surpasses that of the more populous India. It is poised to become the world’s largest free-trade area, with 400-plus companies posting revenues in excess of $1 billion. Yet the economic development and potential of Africa remains an under-told story on the world stage. The Carey Business School’s studentrun Africa Business Club – which seeks to promote the economic, cultural, and social development of Africa – hopes to spark a change in the narrative. That idea drove the agenda of the Africa Business Conference, sponsored by the student club and held at Carey’s Harbor East campus this past January. Building on the momentum of the Mzuzah Convergence 2018 Conference – a previous Carey-hosted event that focused on business in Africa – this year’s conference brought together African development experts and policy shapers with faculty, students, alumni, and members of the Carey community at large. More than 100 people from the African continent and diaspora attended the conference, along with representatives of Carey and other Johns Hopkins divisions. The event featured five panel discussions linked to the conference theme, “Africa’s Place in an Increasingly Global Network.” Keynote speaker for the conference was Eleni Gabre-Madhin, founder and “chief happiness officer” at Blue Moon (Ethiopia’s first youth agriculture business incubator), and former CEO of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). Her comments spoke to the power of
Ed Donahue (BS, Accounting ’68), merged his Annapolis-based financial and management consulting firm, which focuses on environmental infrastructure, with NewGen Strategies and Solutions, a Denver-based consultancy of 50-plus professionals in eight offices. Jibran Joseph Hannaney (Master of Administrative Science ’81) is president of HEMC Environmental Managing Corp. in El Cajon, California. He also is a licensed professional civil engineer, contractor for the removal of hazardous substances, insurance broker, real estate broker, and tax preparation consultant, and he reports that HEMC is planning for an initial public offering.
AFRICA CONFERENCE PANEL CAPTION TO COME.
“ THE CONFERENCE HERE AT HOPKINS IS AN ENGINE... ONE THAT TRANSLATES IDEAS INTO CONVERSATIONS AND CONVERSATIONS INTO ACTIONS THAT ADVANCE AWARENESS AND PURSUIT OF BUSINESS AND CAREERS IN AFRICA.” —ERNEST NYARKO
social media in connecting people and spreading ideas, especially in relation to the burgeoning economic opportunities in Africa. “I refer to the current generation as ‘Generation C’ for connected, because through the power of social media, dreams and ideas are no different,” she said. Rhoda Weeks-Brown, general counsel and director of the Legal Department, International Monetary Fund (IMF), also addressed the conference, focusing on the critical importance of making connections, especially early in one’s career.
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In all, 20 speakers from Africa and its diaspora spoke at the conference. Ernest Nyarko (MBA ’20), James Gyenes (MBA ’20), and Mahamed Konfrou (MBA ’20) served as conference co-chairs. With other student volunteers, they worked tirelessly to make the conference a reality. “The Africa Business Conference here at Hopkins is an engine,” Nyarko observed, “one that translates ideas into conversations and conversations hopefully into actions that advance awareness and pursuit of business and careers in Africa starting with Hopkins.” Already, Nyarko and his student colleagues are looking toward the future. “Our club plans to make the Africa Business Conference at Hopkins an annual affair. … We are working toward a case competition and career fair that we hope will connect startups and businesses in emerging markets in Africa with students at Hopkins,” he said. Nyarko added that the team also hopes to organize a student trek to these emerging markets.
Thomas M. Franklin (Master of Administrative Science ’89) retired last year from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. He also has been involved in leadership roles at the Wildlife Society, the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, and the Howard County Recreation and Parks Advisory Board. Amit Patel (Master of Administrative Science ’89) is managing director at Mythos Group and collaborated with 15 other Silicon Valley consultants to publish a business journal titled Turning Ideas Into Impact, available on Amazon.com. He also has partnered with some business associates to develop a holistic organizational transformation framework called Change Emotional Intelligence. Ann Costlow (Master of Administrative Science ’90) is the founder of Sofi’s Crepes, which has six locations in the Baltimore-Annapolis region, with hopes of adding new locations in Washington, D.C., and Frederick, Maryland. Andrew Kurnicki (Master of Administrative Science ’90) has been the Polish ambassador to Canada since 2017. William Wallace (Master of Administrative Science ’91) is executive vice president of Revenue Storm Corporation. He won a Stevie Award in Las Vegas, Nevada, from the American Business Awards organization. Revenue Storm has worked with clients such as IBM, Xerox, KPMG, Schneider Electric, WiPro, Waste Management, Capita, and TCS. Ritsuko Gray (MS, Information and Telecommunication Systems ’99) is a global area manager of AppleCare for Apple Inc. and reports that a move from California to Texas, near Austin, “turned out to be one of the best decisions I have made in my life.”
By Andrew Blumberg
Brandon Wylie (MBA ’19), one of Baltimore Business Journal’s 2019 “40 under 40” people to watch, approached his studies at the Carey Business School a little differently than most students. As the secondgeneration CEO of one of Baltimore City’s best-known funeral facilities, Wylie Funeral Homes, he had tackled successive levels of leadership early in his career. Now, he wanted to put himself in his employees’ shoes to better learn their perspectives and ideas. To be a better leader, says Wylie, “I wanted to learn how to follow.” Company staff were used to Wylie’s father, Albert, who founded the business and employed a hands-on style, typical of many people who build a business from the ground up. Now with the company firmly established, the younger Wylie felt it was especially important to maximize input from all who had a stake in its continuing success. “How can I change the culture my father had left?” Wylie remembers wondering. He found he had to “ease staff” into a cultural change, empowering individual ideas and initiatives. Wylie, who jokes that his father is working on his “third retirement,” credits him with making the transition possible. “It was the trust that he gave to do different things, implement different strategies,” he says. “He gave me the opportunity to make my own decisions.” Carey Business School’s Flexible MBA program exposed Wylie to different models and frameworks of how businesses are run, and how he could implement them. The MBA degree, he says, enabled him to give his staff “autonomy” to develop their own ideas and strategies.
“I’m looking for ways to grow the business. [The funeral] industry is $1 billion large, but there’s no real information on how to manage this type of business.” One of Carey’s core values, “unwavering humanity,” resonates especially strongly with Wylie, who has long served on the board of the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland, an organ donor procurement program. It offers a chance, he says, to help educate the African-American community about organ donation and increase the supply of available organs in the process. Currently, Wylie is redeveloping a flower shop housed in an old brownstone on Baltimore’s North Avenue into a new floral boutique called Fleurs d’Ave. “I didn’t want to see another dilapidated building on our corner,” he says.
Another of Wylie’s businesses, Above It All, focuses on providing the child development and life skills that can lead to success in school. That venture is run out of what was the original Wylie Funeral Home, which also once doubled as the family’s residence, on “We are working as a team to develop these Gilmor Street in West Baltimore. concepts to change the way funeral services “I want to provide for the community are done,” he adds. economically and make sure there are jobs Wylie, a graduate of Baltimore City College in the community for people to have,” says Wylie. “I was born in Baltimore, this is my and Morgan State University, whose home, and I have to keep providing hope for mother was a Johns Hopkins graduate and Baltimore City Public Schools teacher, says, my home.”
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