A group of Black businessmen have created a startup to recruit 1 million Black Americans into corporate management roles.
A startup called OneTen, aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans over the next 10 years and has so far recruited over 35 company backers and raised more than $100 million in seed funding.
Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck and one of the startup’s founders, said the nonprofit organization will focus on helping Black Americans without four-year college degrees, but with high school diplomas and other certifications, find and retain “family-sustaining jobs,” or those earning $40,000 or more depending on the region.
Nonprofits, community colleges and credentialing organizations will provide training to help them be successful in business, and the CEOs who have joined the effort are committing to hiring these workers.
Frazier claimed that the summer of uprising by the Black grassroots prompted corporate leaders to re-examine their initiatives and join forces.
“What brought people together is that they looked at our country and said, it’s this generation of CEOs who don’t want to pass this down to the next generation,” Mr. Frazier, one of Black America’s wealthiest buisnessmen said.
OneTen’s goal isn’t only to connect companies with those workers, but also improve how companies are hiring and developing people with four-year college degrees, so that they can address the lack of Black representation in middle and upper management.
–Sylvester Loving, B1Daily
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