![]() ![]() Woods award for Outstanding CEO of the Year. He is a five-time winner in the Fast 50 awards and has also won the Granville T. Steward has received numerous awards and commendations for his work in the technology field. The company was named the number one African American owned business by Black Enterprise magazine for seven consecutive years. World Wide Technology now has 1,381 employees in forty-eight states and six countries. He started the firm in a 4,000 square foot building in Kansas City, Missouri with five employees. In 1990 Steward founded his own electronics distribution company, World Wide Technology, which focuses on telecommunications networks, conversion services, and enterprise wide imaging. By 1987, Steward established Transport Administrative Services, which focused on discovering underpayments for companies and he quickly established relationships with four of the seven major railroad companies in the United States. The company focused on obtaining refunds for customers who were charged to much by major corporations such as Pfizer, Ford and Campbell’s Soup. During his time at Federal Express, Steward was recognized as Salesman of the Year, and inducted into the company’s Hall of Fame (1981).Īfter working in mid-level positions in corporate America in 1984 Steward purchased a consulting firm he had previously done marketing work for and renamed it Transportation Business Specialists. ![]() His next position was as a senior account executive at Federal Express (1979-1984). He remained at the railroad from 1975 to 1979. He then worked at Missouri Pacific Railroad as a sales representative and was the first black person to serve in that position in the company. Steward first worked as a substitute teacher and served as an associate executive for The Boy Scouts of America, where he often went without a paycheck, before taking a job at Wagner Electric as a production manager (1974-1975). He also attended segregated Clinton Senior High School, graduating in 1969, and then Central Missouri State University, receiving his BS in business management in 1973. Steward lived through segregated movie theaters and schools and was part of a group that integrated a public swimming pool in 1967. The family bought a small farm, where they lived in poverty. The family of ten relocated to Clinton, Missouri in his youth so his mother could finish her formal education. His father, Harold, was a mechanic, trash collector, and janitor, and his mother, Dorothy, was a homemaker. Stewart was born on Jin Chicago, Illinois. Steward is currently considered the second richest black man in the United States, worth over $3.7 billion dollars. ![]() He and his wife, Thelma, have received the Jane and Whitney Harris St. He was recognized as the 2012 Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) and the 2015 St. In addition to his business success, Steward has won several awards. He has two children and two grandchildren. The entrepreneur has been married for over 44 years. What is more, the billionaire is also the author of two books - Doing Business by The Good Book, published in 2004, and Leadership by the Good Book, published in 2020. Steward is also the founder of Kingdom Capital, a values-driven private investment firm with a focus on early-stage companies with technology-based health and medical solutions. The technology services provider specializes in cloud capabilities, data center, and virtualization, security, mobility, and networking technologies along with voice, video, and collaboration solutions. WWT notes that it has more than 8,000 employees and generates more than $14.5 billion in annual revenue, according to Bloomberg. The company provides services for both the American government and private organizations. with more than 20 locations across the world. Today, the company is one of the largest Black-owned IT providers in the U.S. He founded IT provider World Wide Technology (WWT) with a shoestring budget and with seven employees. In 1990, he launched what would later turn out to be his most important business. ![]() He later established a sister company that was in charge of auditing undercharges for railroad companies called Transport Administrative Service. He approached his father for a $2000 loan which he used to launch Transportation Business Specialists, which audited and reviewed freight-bill and overcharges for the rail industry. That’s when I really started thinking about buying my own business,” he told Horatio Alger Association. “That vision sort of hit me then that there was an emptiness and a confinement to working for someone else. ![]()
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