A media mogul, an airline CEO and a venture capitalist all walk into a room. It’s actually not a punchline, it’s the makings of the Junior Bridgeman Business Vanguard honorees for EBONY’s 2026 Power 100 list.
And what do each of these individuals all have in common? Fortitude, expertise and ambition to have acquired the levels of success that they have relentlessly worked for.
Brett Hart was a special assistant to the general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Clinton administration before transitioning into running the day-to-day operations for United Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the industry. Latriece Watkins spent nearly thirty years climbing the ranks at Walmart before her promotion to President and CEO at Sam’s Club in February of 2026.
Then there’s the ones who said “table, be damned” and built their own. Tope Awotona doubled down in his fortitude through multiple failures before launching Calendly, the platform that would change his life and innovate work processes for more than 20 million. Byron Allen was doing stand-up comedy at 14 and now owns Allen Media Group, whose portfolio includes TheGrio, The Weather Channel and a notable stake in the country’s regional sports networks. Stacy Brown-Philpot led TaskRabbit — as COO, then CEO — through its acquisition by IKEA, before founding Cherryrock Capital to support other Black and Latin scale their startups financially.
Through leadership and culture-centered strategy, our Junior Bridgeman Business Vanguard honorees are moving the needle forward at every level. Lela Coffey has ran a career marathon over two decades to ensure Proctor & Gamble (P&G) equally understands and prioritizes consumers of color. As the Vice President of Multicultural Business Acceleration, she’s made her mark across several P&G beauty entities. Racquel Oden is etching her mark as Head of International Wealth & Premiere Banking, Head of Global Private Banking, U.S. at HSBC Bank USA, serving millions of clients and earning her spot on Forbes’ 2025 50 Over 50 list. Ime Archibong helps decide how half a billion people use Messenger every day as one of the highest-ranking Black executives at Meta in his role of Vice President of Product Management and Head of Messenger Product at the tech conglomerate.
Suffice to say, the list speaks for itself. We’ve got leadership representatives across industries; aviation, retail, banking, beauty, tech, media, and venture capital, showing us every day that nothing moves without Black leadership.