UofL alum advocates, educates for Black economic power

In Lawrence Watkins’ view, the quest for economic power is the current generation’s civil rights struggle.

Watkins ’06 is doing his part to help fellow Black Americans with access to affordable education that could propel them to business opportunities and generational wealth.

After earning his UofL electrical engineering bachelor's degree, Watkins started the speakers’ bureau Great Black Speakers and other entrepreneurial ventures, also adding a Cornell University MBA to his resume.

He co-founded in 2016 and is vice chairman of The Black Business School, an education and training platform to provide Black students with culturally relevant, practical instruction in areas from investing to personal finance to entrepreneurship.

Watkins also co-founded the Black Experts Empire for professionals and publishes the Black Business Daily newsletter with articles pertinent to business and investing.

Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business highlighted his success story of entrepreneurship during Black History Month. Read more about Watkins here.