Despite obstacles, Black business ownership is booming around the world. According to Fortune, in the U.S., Black-owned businesses are growing at the fastest rate in over 30 years. And in places like Nigeria and Brazil, Black-owned businesses are growing in visibility and capturing more market share. As Black business leaders break barriers and reach new heights of success, they’ve sought out leaders who value growth and learning.
YPO is one such place where Black leaders can find a community.
While YPO’s efforts to diversify go back decades, most recently, it launched the Awani initiative, a pilot program to help YPO chapters increase membership and engagement of Black members. And they have exceeded their goal of recruiting 100 Black business leaders to join YPO by June 2024.
But if “past is prologue,” now may be a good time to look at how it started. Earl Yancy of Connecticut, USA, started Black YPO (BYPO) in 1994 to create an intentional support network and recruit Black members into YPO. He served as its chair until 2005, when he turned over the reins to Brian Hall, a member from Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
According to Yancy, “I started Black YPO so that Black YPO members and their families could have a place for meaningful connection, collaboration and professional and personal knowledge transfer. I wanted it to be purposeful. It wasn’t just about having a good time. It was about having a space with other Black leaders who understood you and your challenges – where you could vet your strategies for expanding your business and get candid feedback in one conversation and talk about where you were sending your kids to school in another.”
Black YPO’s beginnings
Yancy was attending a YPO family event in Maui, Hawaii, USA, in 1994. He noticed Doug Smollan, then YPO’s global chairman, relaxing with other families on the beach. The two chatted, and Yancy decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while: Why were there so few Black YPO members?
After a thoughtful pause, Smollan said it hadn’t been on his radar. But Yancy’s question put it on his radar and change was underway.
Yancy returned home to Connecticut and got to work. Because the organization had not kept track of members’ race, he combed through YPO directories, noting the African American members. He queried their interest in meeting, and with YPO management support, the first BYPO forum and retreat took place in Chicago in 1995 with 20 U.S.-based Black YPO members attending. Smollan flew in from his home in Cape Town to show the organization’s commitment.
BYPO’s mission is to increase Black members in YPO around the world. Thirty years ago, Black membership in YPO was significantly underrepresented. However, through intentional recruitment and retention initiatives the number of Black members has seen a substantial increase, reflecting the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Within the last three years, the organization has witnessed an 85% increase in new Black members.BYPO was YPO’s official first ‘network,’ serving as a prototype for other virtual interest-based communities. Today there are more than 30 YPO Networks including those for women and the LGBTQ+ community, diversifying YPO and allowing peers to engage beyond their chapter around common interests, industries and topics.
BYPO’s members met privately with then-President Bill Clinton in 2000 and with then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008, dined in Jamaica with the country’s prime minister in 2011, hosted a Cubano Africa trip to Cuba in 2013 and a series of well-attended global virtual events on the Black experience in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020.
Since taking the reins in 2005, Hall has made expansion, particularly global expansion, his priority. Today BYPO’s membership stands at 283 with representation from the U.S., the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Australia and Africa.
“Black YPO has offered a respite and place of inspiration for Black members of YPO who, because of their exceptional success and leadership, often find themselves isolated in chapters, board rooms, forums and country clubs,” Hall says. “This gathering of leaders has energized its members for decades to collectively maximize the YPO opportunities and support each other’s businesses and families. The bonds formed in their discussions and gatherings have created remarkable resiliency.”
Yancy is optimistic about the future. “Brian has done an outstanding job in expanding and leading BYPO. He has enhanced the alignment between YPO and BYPO. He has created an incredible opportunity for collaboration and growth. That continued collaboration started 30 years ago, which bodes well for the future of YPO, BYPO and the global community.”
YPO’s current mission statement says: “Our vision is clear: to be the most diverse and inclusive leadership organization, positively impacting diversity and inclusion in businesses and communities across the globe. “Thirty years after BYPO’s founding, while there’s still more progress to be made, YPO is well on the way to making that vision a reality,” adds Yancy.
