Janice Bryant Howroyd
First African-American woman to privately own a billion-dollar business
She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The ACT-1 Group which is the largest privately held, woman self- owned workforce Solutions Company founded in the U.S. The Act-1 Group is a multibillion-dollar award-winning international Talent and Talent Technology enterprise with multiple divisions operating in 19 countries with over 17,000 clients and 2,600 employees worldwide.
Alongside all of these as a wife and mother, she is renowned as an educator advocate, activist, businesswoman, author, mentor, ambassador of the Department of Energy’s Minorities in Energy Initiative, a board member of numerous organizations including the Department of Labor’s Workforce Initiative Board, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, WeConnect, National Utilities Diversity Council, Harvard Women’s Leadership Board, California Science Center, Los Angeles Urban League and a member of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Services and Finance Industries of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. In May 2016 Janice Bryant Howroyd received a key Presidential appointment by President Barack Obama as a member of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. She also authored the national bookseller The Art of Work: How to Make Work, Work for You!. she is inducted into the National Black College Alumni (NBCA) Hall of Fame.