She's First African-American Woman With $1B Business

Familiar with the name Janice Bryant Howroyd? There's a reason the 65-year-old comes in at No. 4 on a CNBC list of black women who have changed the world of business. Howroyd, it turns out, is the first African-American woman to run a company that generates more than $1 billion in revenue. That would be Act-1, an employment agency she founded that also provides consulting and services such as background checks. The Los Angeles Times has a wide-ranging interview with Howroyd on her career. Some highlights:

• The best advertising: “You can have the best advertising, but unless someone else certifies what they are saying, you won’t last long. Word of mouth has always been my best referral system.”
• Mantra: “My personal business protocol, my life mantra: Never compromise who you are personally to become what you wish to be professionally.”
• Advice for women: “Many young women have grown up with the perspective of the denigration of women ... so they started to face this before they faced the reality of it in an employment relationship. While they can’t accept that this is right, they can accept this as common and believe then that they have a need to figure out how to navigate that.”

Read the full interview. (More African Americans stories.)