Bill Winston

Bill Winston is a visionary leader whose mission is to empower Believers through teaching and preaching the uncompromised Word of God to fulfill their highest calling and change the world through Jesus Christ.

Bill Winston received his Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Friends International Christian University, and is Founder and Pastor of Living Word Christian Center, a 19,000 member church located in Forest Park, Illinois, and Tuskegee Christian Center in Tuskegee, Alabama. The church has a broad range of entities including: the Joseph Business School; Living Word School of Ministry and Missions; the Forest Park Plaza (a 32-acre shopping mall) and Washington Plaza (a shopping center in Tuskegee); Living Word Christian Academy; and many others.

Bill is also the Founder and Chairman of The Joseph Center® for Business Development, Chairman of the Board of Covenant Bank, President of New Covenant Community Development Corporation, Founder of Bill Winston Ministries (a ministry outreach that shares the Gospel through television, radio, and other media), and President and Founder of Faith Ministries Alliance (FMA), an alliance of more than 350 churches and ministries under the covering of Pastor Winston in the U.S. and overseas.

Bill is married to Veronica and is the father of three children, Melody, Nicole, and David.

Dr. Janice Bryant Howroyd

Dr. Janice Bryant Howroyd practices what she preaches. With a lot of hard work and even more perseverance, Janice turned her passion for helping others into an admirable and highly successful enterprise—all the while mentoring others and championing work/life balance along the way.

Ever enthusiastic about sharing her work/life balance experiences and know-how, Janice adapted her ‘ten principles to help you better love your life and work’ into a book entitled ‘The Art of Work—How to Make Your Work, Work for You’.

Janice often proudly credits her roles as a mother, wife and advocate for strengthening her resolve to succeed. She now heads the ACT•1 Group, a global organization that is leading the human resources industry with innovative services and tools to partner with firms in optimizing human resource talent management.

Founded in 1978, the organization has grown from a single-desk staffing agency to a diverse collection of commercial staffing companies that maintain over 300 points of distribution. The group services businesses throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, India and the United Kingdom. And this year the Group plans to be operable in Brazil and Germany.

Steven Rogers

Steven Rogers is the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship. Professor Rogers teaches Entrepreneurial Finance at the Kellogg School of Management and is the Director of the Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice. Before joining the Kellogg Faculty, he owned and operated two manufacturing firms and one retail operation. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Professor Rogers worked at Bain and Company Consulting firm, Cummins Engine Company and UNC Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Professor Rogers has been named to the Faculty Honor Roll in every quarter he has taught at Kellogg. In 1996, BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 entrepreneurship professors at graduate business schools in the U.S. In 1997, BusinessWeek named him one of 14 “New Stars of Finance.” In 1998, he was selected as Entrepreneur Of The Year ® by Ernst & Young.

Professor Rogers currently serves on the Advisory Board of Private Equity firm OCA Ventures. He also serves on the Board of Directors of SC Johnson Wax, W.S. Darley & Company, SuperValu (NYSE), Oakmark Mutual Funds, and AMCORE Financial (Nasdaq). He is a member of JP Morgan Chase's Capital Investment Committe.

Among his many honors, in 2005, Professor Robers was selected as "Chicago United's Business Leader of Color." In 2006, he was selected as one of the "100 Men Impacting Supplier Diversity." In 2008 he was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame. And former Governor Pat Quinn appointed him to be a trustee of the Illinois State Universities Retirement System Pension Board in 2009.

Stuart Taylor

Stuart A. Taylor II is CEO of The Taylor Group, a non-traditional private equity firm. He started The Taylor Group in 2001 following a 19-year career on Wall Street. The company focuses its efforts primarily in two areas: advisory services and principal activities. On the advisory side, The Taylor Group provides advice to small and middle market companies in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and valuation. This is an extension of the business Mr. Taylor executed during his tenure in investment banking. On the principal side, The Taylor Group acquires companies in partnership with minority and/or female entrepreneurs. The objective of this activity is to dramatically increase the number of minority/women owned businesses.

Prior to forming The Taylor Group, Mr. Taylor was a Senior Managing Director and head of Bear Stearns’ Investment Banking operations in the firm’s Chicago office. Prior to joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Taylor spent two years as a Managing Director at CIBC World Markets. At CIBC, Mr. Taylor was head of both the firm’s Global Automotive and Capital Goods industry coverage groups. Mr. Taylor serves on the Board of Directors of two publicly traded companies and also sits on the board of several small private companies. He has been featured in Crain’s Chicago Business as one of its Top Forty Under Forty business leaders in Chicago, was named by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the Top Twenty-five Blacks on Wall Street and was a recipient of the Professional Achievement Award from The African American Alumni Association of Harvard Business School.

Mr. Taylor is a graduate of Yale University and received an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business with a concentration in Finance.

Bishop T.D. Jakes

Bishop T. D. Jakes is founder and senior pastor of the legendary 30,000-member Dallas-based church, The Potter’s House. In a short number of years, his motivating messages have reached the world through best-selling books, award-winning music, critically acclaimed plays and record-breaking events. Named by Time magazine as “America’s Best Preacher,” Bishop Jakes’ message of healing and restoration is unparalleled, transcending cultural and denominational barriers within the church and beyond. His weekly television outreach, The Potter’s Touch, is a favorite throughout America, Africa, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean.

Bishop Jakes is the visionary behind several entities: the Metroplex Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit organization created to bridge the socio-economic gaps that exist in urban America; Clay Academy, a private, Christian school that offers studies from pre-K3 to eighth grade; MegaCARE, the global outreach missions arm of the church; the Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative (TORI), an after-care program that provides intensive case management to former inmates; The Potter’s House Center for Counseling and Behavioral Health, which delivers powerful programs and services to those impacted by HIV/AIDS and mental/emotional maladies; and TDJ Enterprises, Jakes’ for-profit company which produces and distributes his books, plays, movies, music projects and economic conferences. Additionally, he has established numerous active ministries that work within the church and community to serve the people of God.

A prolific author of more than 30 books, Bishop Jakes has numerous best sellers, including his most recent books, Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Won’t Regret, and Reposition Yourself, both of which reached No. 3 on The New York Times Best Sellers list.  Bishop Jakes’ has also appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, CNN, Oprah and MSNBC, and has been called upon by U. S. presidents and international leaders.  Bishop Jakes has also been quoted or profiled in such notable publications as Forbes, The Washington Post, Essence, Time, Ebony, and D Magazine. 

Steve Perry

Dr. Steve Perry’s career has taken him from directing a grassroots organization in Chester, PA to a full scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, back to his hometown of Middletown where he ran a homeless shelter, became a candidate for state representative and published his first of four books, and then he turned 26.

Dr. Perry is in a hurry to transform the community. In 1998 Dr. Perry founded ConnCAP, the Connecticut Collegiate Awareness Program, at Capital Community College. The program sent 100% of its low-income first generation graduates to four-year colleges for six years. Then in 2004 Capital Prep was born and since its inception it too has sent 100% of its graduates to four year colleges for three consecutive years! Perry courageously forged a path into starting a public middle and high school in the state’s lowest performing district, Hartford. Today, Capital Prep has become one of the nation’s most successful public middle/high schools.

Dr. Perry is also the CNN Education Contributor and an Essence Best Selling author, with his book “Man Up! Nobody is coming to save us”. He is a nationally sought after speaker appearing on over 200 radio and television stations in the past three years. He has also been a regular contributor on issues of education for CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. Dr. Perry is also on a national college tour where he discusses issues ranging from personal responsibility to educational reform.

Ephren Taylor

Ephren Taylor is a Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author and the CEO of City Capital Corporation. As CEO he is responsible for the strategic positioning and overall profitability of a multi-million dollar corporation recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the “Top 100 Socially Conscious Corporations in the United States.” At 26 years old Ephren Taylor is currently the youngest African-American CEO of any publicly traded company in United States history. Taylor began his career with his first business venture as a videogame developer and built a multi-million dollar technology company, GoFerretGo.com by the age of 17.

Today, Ephren oversees millions in assets serving a diverse clientele of blue chip, private and multi-tier branding development interests and is engaged in building investor and shareholder value through profitable and socially-conscious investing that empowers urban communities. Thus far he’s successfully developed multi-million dollar initiatives ranging from creating affordable housing for working-class families to the development and production of bio-fuels. In 2007 Taylor started the Goshen Energy initiative; which focuses on producing alternative energy specializing in biofuels. He is a nationally recognized “wealth architect” and has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, Montel Williams and many others. He also has regular appearances in print and radio including PBS, Black Enterprise, and the Miami Herald.

Derek Luke

Derek Luke was introduced to audiences worldwide with his courageous and heart-wrenching portrayal of an abandoned and abused young man trying to find his path in life in the highly revered drama, “Antwone Fisher.” Following the success of “Antwone Fisher,” Luke co-starred in a number of diverse films including starring alongside Laurence Fishburne in “Biker Boyz,” as Katie Holmes’ loyal boyfriend “Bobby” in the critically-acclaimed independent film “Pieces of April,” and starring in the political thriller “Spartan” alongside Val Kilmer and William H. Macy. In October 2004, Luke starred as James “Boobie” Miles in “Friday Night Lights” and his next project, “Glory Road,” opened in the number one slot at the box office. He also co-starred with Tim Robbins in “Catch a Fire” and alongside Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise in “Lions for Lambs.” Last year, he led an ensemble cast in Spike Lee’s WWII epic “Miracle at St. Anna.” And last winter he appeared in Tyler Perry’s film “Madea Goes to Jail.” In January of this year he starred as Sean “Diddy” Combs in the bio-pic “Notorious,” and in September Luke made his television debut starring as paramedic “Cameron Boone” in NBC’s new ensemble drama series, “Trauma.”