Reginald Lewis: Fifty Years of Successful Business Heritage

Reginald Lewis was arguably one of the most successful American businessmen in the 1980s. He had a degree in economics earned at Virginia State College. He studied law at Harvard Law School and graduated in 1968. His net worth was estimated at $40 million when Forbes listed him among America’s richest men in 1992.

Lewis was the founder of Beatrice Foods and became the first Afro-American to own a billion dollar company. After years of practicing the law profession, Lewis had the opportunity to acquire Beatrice International Foods from its mother company, Beatrice Companies. After paying $985 million, Lewis renamed the company TLC Beatrice International. In 1987, TLC Beatrice reported revenues amounting to $1.8 billion to become the first Afro-American owned company to hit the billion dollar level mark of annual sales. TLC Beatrice placed 512th in Fortune’s 1000 largest companies after earning $2.2 billion in revenues in 1996.

After years of success career in law practice and business, Lewis died on January 19, 1993. He was he was 50 years old.