The quotations in this book were selected from
personal statements submitted to The Network
Journal by recipients of the magazine’s “25
Influential Black Women in Business” annual
awards from 2000 to 2021. Launched in 1999, the
awards highlight and honor often-unacknowledged
achievements of Black women in the United States.
The typical award recipient is an entrepreneur, a
woman entrusted with significant decision-making
authority in a corporate, not-for-profit, academic,
healthcare organization, and in public office. She
has a track record of providing leadership and
support to her community. Award recipients reside
in the United States, but they represent national
and cultural origins spanning the U.S., Africa and
communities of people of African descent
worldwide.
As executive editor of The Network Journal, I am
privileged to review the personal statements of
these extraordinary women. The motivating words
they cite attest to their universal soul, one that
values historical and present-day counsel,
irrespective of geographic, ethnic or cultural origin,
whether from the famous or the unknown. I hope
readers of this book draw as much from these
words as the women who are lifted by them.
Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont 2023