Janice Bryant-Howroyd is the first African American woman to own a billion-dollar company. She launched ACT•1 Group — now the largest workforce solutions company founded in the US by a minority woman — in 1978 with $1,500, which included a $900 loan from her mother. Today, the company delivers on a global scale with about 12,000 clients and offices throughout North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Bryant Howroyd sits on seven executive boards, including the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard and the board of trustees at her alma mater, North Carolina A&T State University. Believing people perform best when their personal strengths are developed and challenged, she aims to provide the firm’s more than 2,600 employees with an innovative, learning and service-driven environment.
