The St. Louis American Foundation’s 2016 Salute to Excellence in Business Luncheon, held on Thursday, November 17, came days after the president-elect of the United States announced that the publisher of a white nationalist news site, Steve Bannon, would be his chief strategist. The president-elect’s surrogates were publicly discussing creating a national registry for Muslims, as minorities in America reeled from a spate of hate crimes in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.
So emcee Carol Daniel was jubilant to hear a white male business executive – Matt Holt, vice president of human resources at Dot Foods – speak in positive terms about the business and cultural dividends of diversity.
“We believe diversity is the driver of innovation,” Holt said, in accepting the 2016 Corporate Diversity Award for Dot Foods, a multi-billion-dollar food redistributor with 5,000 employees nationwide. “We train our managers in honing inclusive behavior.”
In his closing remarks, Holt – who himself made no reference to politics – sounded like a progressive Democratic candidate. “It takes all of us to imagine the possibilities of what we can accomplish together,” Holt said.
When he had finished, Daniel took the mic and went off-script. “That’s who this country is,” she said, “and who we want it to be.”
The shadow of Trump, Bannon and what their rule could mean for a diverse America was cast over the entire networking luncheon.
Sandra M. Moore, president of Urban Strategies and 2016 Non-Profit Executive of the Year, talked about her company’s experience “working in the toughest neighborhoods, the most distressed communities,” trying to “improve conditions for low- and middle-income families.” Then she read a series of devastating statistics about the prevalence of poverty in America.
“That’s what we need to focus on,” Moore said, “letting nothing in the noise distract us.”
No one in the room doubted that the name of “the noise” was Donald Trump.
The 2016 Corporate Executive of the Year, Willie Epps Jr., is a living, breathing example of diversity. Presently associate general counsel and head of litigation at Edward Jones, he previously was partner at two majority Missouri-based law firms, Dowd Bennett and Shook, Hardy & Bacon. One of his most extended thank-yous was given to a white mentor in the audience, Ed Dowd, partner at Dowd Bennett.
Yet the video about Epps, produced by Rebecca Rivas of The American, included a bracing reminder of the civil rights era which the United States may be poised to go through all over again. Epps told how his maternal grandfather, David French Bacon, led a petition effort to desegregate the schools in his small Mississippi town in 1955. In retaliation, the signatories lost their jobs, his grandfather’s truck was bombed in the family driveway and the house was stoned.
Epps said, “My mom” – who was in the Salute audience at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis – “was nine years old at the time.”
The 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year, Larry W. Lee, also praised his family, but in more homely terms as founders of the business, Andy’s Seasoning, that he runs as president and CEO. His mother Katherine Anderson and stepfather Reuben Anderson founded the company in their home in 1981 with one product. Now Andy’s Seasoning makes 13 products and distributes them in 44 states.
Lee drew a loud, appreciative response when he recalled his stepfather lecturing him as a youth about the necessity of hard work when he landed his first job at a local department store.
“Look,” Lee remembered the lecture, “they hired you to work. They didn’t hire you to make friends. They didn’t hire you to like it. They hired you to work. So, work.”
Three 2016 Business Performance Awards also were given to Marvin Mitchell, president and founder of Compass Retirement Solutions; Annette Morris, head of diversity, inclusion and gender balance with Nestle Purina PetCare Company; and JoAnna Schooler, senior director of internal communications and community relations for Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.
Two $2,500 scholarships were awarded to students at Harris-Stowe State University’s Anheuser-Busch School of Business: Ciara Harris, who is pursuing a degree in accounting, and Brandon Curtis, a business administration major. Bert and Carol Walker donated the funds for these scholarships.
The 17th Annual Salute to Excellence in Business Luncheon was presented by the St. Louis American Foundation in partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and the St. Louis Regional Chamber. World Wide Technology was the lead sponsor.
The Salute tradition is for the event’s main awardee to invite his or her pastor to bless the food before the meal. In this case, the main awardee, Larry W. Lee, also is pastor at Agape Christian Center, so he gave the blessing himself. He prayed to God that “our relationships be strengthened, our lives advanced and that we remember those less fortunate than ourselves.”
