Kwame Jackson

"I think street-smarts are more important than book-smarts but luckily I have both." --Kwame Jackson

Kwame was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Charlotte, NC; which he considers home. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Harvard. True to his entrepreneurial training at Harvard and the bounty of opportunities in the late 90's, Kwame was heavily involved in several "dot-com" start-ups during his time in business school. However, his Fortune 500 professional foundation includes sales and marketing roles at Procter & Gamble and, most recently, on Wall Street as an Investment Manager for Goldman Sachs.

What is your definition of "success"? Success to me is simply being happy with yourself and doing more good than evil along the way. Although we all have various lofty professional and personal goals, in the end, what matters is being pleased with the man in the mirror. When it's all said and done, I would hope that success for me includes a feeling of true self-actualization and fulfillment accompanied by the financial freedom, soundness of body and mind, and personal wisdom to control my daily destiny. If all of this comes along with a "Trumpesque" empire, then so be it!

Who do you admire most (personally and/or professionally)? On the personal side, I would have to say my Mother, Marilyn, who died of cancer at age 41 when I was 15 years old. My mother started from humble beginnings to go on and become the first person in my family to attend college, as a scholarship student of Howard University. After becoming a CPA, she started her own practice in Charlotte, NC and was a successful business woman and role model for professional/personal determination. I like to think that if my mom could instill all that in me in the limited 15 years of my life that she had to work with, then she did a pretty damn good job of giving me a solid head start! Thanks Mom for showing me the way!

Professionally, I continue to be impressed by the legacy of unparalleled achievementsthat Robert L. Johnson has left in his wake as the first African-American Billionaire, Founder and CEO of Black Entertainment Television, and the first African-American owner of an NBA franchise. Mr. Johnson exemplifies the fruition of the American Dream and a stratospheric target for all those following in his foot steps.

What cartoon character do you most relate to and why? This is a great question for a former comic book junkie! As a kid, I collected comics and was always fascinated by the X-Men series. The character that captivated me the most and I feel I have the most in common with is Wolverine. Although Wolverine is part and parcel of the X-Men team, he is a loner/free-spirit at heart who doesn't like following orders or conforming to societal norms/expectations. He's tenacious and fierce and is often respected but not always liked. Wolverine is also the comic book world's most resilient survivor. It also doesn't hurt that Wolverine is considered to be one of the coolest of all characters in comic book land!