Reginald Lewis & Loida Nicolas-Lewis

Reginald Lewis and his wife Loida Nicolas-Lewis

Reginald F. Lewis (December 7, 1942 – January 19, 1993), was an American businessman, who was one of the most successful business leaders during the 1980s. He was the richest African-American man in the 1980s. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood. He won a football scholarship to Virginia State College, graduating with a degree in economics in 1965. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1968 and was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.

In 1992, Forbes listed Lewis among the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth estimated at $400 million. He also was the first African American to build a billion dollar company, Beatrice Foods. Reginald Lewis was married to Loida Nicolas-Lewis. He died at age 50, from brain cancer. Nicolas-Lewis took over the company a year after his death.

Loida Nicolas Lewis (born 1942) is a Filipino-born American businesswoman, philanthropist, civic leader, motivational speaker, author, and lawyer. Loida Nicolas Lewis served as Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice International, a $2 billion multinational food company with operations all across Europe, from 1994-2000. She assumed the leadership of one of the largest companies in the U.S. after the death of her husband, the African-American, Wall Street financier Reginald F. Lewis, and won over a skeptical business community by moving quickly to sell assets including the corporate jet, paying down debt, downsizing the New York corporate staff by 50 percent and increasing earnings. After successfully running the company for six years, she completed the sale of TLC Beatrice and its related businesses in 2000, achieving a 35 percent return on investment for its shareholders. Currently, Mrs. Lewis is Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice, LLC, a family investment firm. A lawyer by profession, admitted to practice in the Philippines and New York, Mrs. Lewis was the first Filipino woman to pass the New York bar without attending law school in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia