Obama's Executive Sounding Board

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Losing Ground

They have miles to go, however, before they can rest. In many categories, Chicago's blacks lag African Americans of other big metropolitan areas. Along Michigan Avenue's roughly 2.5 miles of prime real estate from Roosevelt Road to Oak Street, only one building is black-owned. Of Chicago's top 50 companies, only one has a black chief executive (Corn Products' Scott) vs. four in greater New York. With an African American population twice as big as Chicago's 1.1 million, New York has almost three times more black businesses—98,076 to Chicago's 39,424. And 94% of Chicago's black-owned businesses are mom-and-pop shops with no more than one employee.

Outside the business sphere, Chicago often ranks poorly, too. The percentage of black males in Chicago Public Schools who go on to graduate from college is a dismal 3%. Crime, imprisonment, and unemployment among blacks are on the rise here, while they're declining in other big cities. Chicago is no longer even the Second City, laments Rogers. "I want to challenge Chicago to get us back where we were, and not let the business power structure in this city think that everything is O.K."

Today's black leaders are building on the work of their predecessors—at Johnson Publishing, hair-care marketer Johnson Products, Independence Bank, Harold's Chicken Shack, and Leon's Bar-B-Q. "The thing that has kept us together over the years is the commonality of our visions for what we want the city to be like, and what we want to see the minority business community be like," says Reynolds, a 53-year-old native of Chicago's tough Englewood neighborhood who co-founded Loop Capital in 1997 after 21 years at such brokerages as Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch (MER). "We always know that when we talk, we are in the same place."

The Fab Five

It's early April, and the Fab Five literally are in the same place, in Ariel Capital's 29th floor offices in the Aon Building. Sitting around a circular conference table, they tease each other and laugh as if they are at a family reunion. For instance, Clark, 62, and Jarrett, 51, rib each other like uncle and niece.

"What makes us jell and work so well together is that we have mutual respect for one another," notes Clark, who started in ComEd's mailroom in 1966 and, after a tour of duty in Vietnam, worked his way up to president in 2001. Then comes the zinger: "Although we don't always agree. I think Valerie made the mistake at least once of not listening to me."

As the others chuckle, Jarrett jabs back good-naturedly. "Well, one time he gave me very bad advice."

Clark and Jarrett met 22 years ago as fellows in Leadership Greater Chicago, a program to enlist the support of emerging city leaders in tackling local problems. In fact, many among Chicago's black business elite have known each other for decades. It's part of what unites them and allows for mutual trust. Jarrett and Rogers grew up together in Hyde Park and attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The Fab Five all live within a few miles of one another. And they sit on the same nonprofit organizations: the Chicago Urban League and the Alliance of Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs.

They also are similar in personality. Rogers is generally self-effacing in public. But inside the boardrooms of McDonald's (MCD), Aon (AOC), and Exelon, where he is a director, Rogers seldom lets a conversation go by without stressing the need for minority advancement. Although he runs one of the nation's largest black-owned investment bank, Reynolds is publicity shy, too. But behind the scenes, he has worked as a partner in Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition and is now chairman of the Chicago Urban League.

Even less public is Primo. As the five banter, Jarrett refers to Primo as a "phantom" because she can go months without seeing or talking to him. Primo, 53, was born in New York and bounced around until he graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School. A Harvard Business School grad, he founded Capri in 1992 and has become one of the nation's top real estate developers in urban areas. Yes, he and the others are competitive, but unlike in other towns, he notes, blacks in Chicago are a "different breed of cat because we can put down our swords and do great things together."

In late March, for instance, the Urban League's Jackson was pondering how she could give a lift to black women in business. She zapped an e-mail to some of her friends, including Rice of Johnson Publishing, Peoples Gas President Desiree G. Rogers, and former WBBM-TV anchor Diann Burns. Jackson proposed a small get-together to discuss how to raise money for a formal program that would help black women launch businesses and climb the corporate ladder.

Two dozen women showed up for a reception of champagne and hors d'oeuvres that Rice hosted at the Ebony/Jet building on South Michigan Avenue (the only black-owned building on the avenue downtown). Rice got things rolling by agreeing to turn over a portion of the proceeds from the upcoming Ebony Fashion Fair to the cause. The others quickly pitched in, buying $2,500 and $1,200 balcony tickets on the spot. They all agreed to help sell more of the balcony tickets as well as $125 individual seats. "That just goes to show the power of that group," Jackson says.

The executives are just as passionate about education. Rogers founded Ariel Elementary Community Academy on the South Side, while Clark is a co-benefactor, along with Exelon Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe, of Rowe-Clark Math & Science Academy on the West Side. Concerned about the dismal college graduation rate of black males, Ernst & Young's Anderson hosted a breakfast last October to enlist mentors for male students at E&Y-sponsored Perspectives-Calumet Charter School on the South Side. Reynolds attended, along with several others. Two months later, at a follow-up breakfast, the Urban League's Jackson outlined objectives that became the league's Initiative for African American Males, or I AM.

This group also extends its ethos of community empowerment to African Americans who've made it to the top. A couple of years ago, for example, Rogers met with Richard D. Parsons, who was chief executive of Time Warner (TWX), and Ann M. Fudge, the now-retired CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands (WPPGY). Rogers wanted to attract the most important players in Corporate America to a conference for black directors of publicly traded companies.