African American Experience Fund

Corporate executive Genelle Trader was born on February 21, 1952 in Wilmington, Delaware to Marion Bishop Trader and Purnell Trader. She graduated from Tower Hill School, where she was the first African American student to attend the school. Trader went on to receive her B.S. degree in mathematics, cum laude, from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and her M.S. degree in management with an emphasis in management information systems and finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management in 1980.

From 1980 to 1982, Trader worked as a marketing representative at the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). In 1982, she became a senior product manager at Wang Laboratories, where she managed the company’s line of minicomputers and one of the industry’s first voice mail servers. After a brief stint as the product area manager at Computer Sciences Corporation in 1985, Trader was hired as the director of portable systems at AST Research Inc. in Irvine, California, where she led the launch of the company’s first notebook computer in 1989. Then, in 1992, Trader became the vice president of marketing at Everex Systems, where she led the restructuring of the company’s marketing organization. In 1993, Trader was recruited by SunExpress President Dorothy Terrell to become the senior director of marketing for SunExpress. During her ten years at Sun Microsystems, Trader also led the company’s Workstation Products Marketing Group, and a key Internet corporate initiative. In 2002, Trader left Sun Microsystems and subsequently found her own consultant and executive coaching firm, Strategic Business Coaching Group, based in Wilmington, Delaware. Trader coaches executives at Fortune 500 corporations and nonprofits. Since 2010, Trader also works with First Cap Advisors, as a consultant.

Trader has served on the board of trustees of the National Park Foundation’s African American Experience Fund; on the board of directors at The HistoryMakers; and as the strategic planning co-chair of both the Potomac, Virginia Chapter and Wilmington, Delaware chapters of The Links, Incorporated. She also served on the board of directors of the Serviam Girls Academy in New Castle, Delaware.

Genelle Trader was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 13, 2018.

Insurance chief executive and athletic director Tom A. Goss was born on July 6, 1946 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended Knoxville’s Austin High School, where he was a standout football star in the 1960s. Goss went on to attend the University of Michigan and was named to the all-Big Ten team as a defensive tackle during his senior year. He graduated in 1968 with his B.S. degree in education.

Goss was first hired by Procter & Gamble in 1969. In 1970, he became a regional manager at R. J. Reynolds Industries, and was then named regional vice president for sales at Del Monte Corporation where he worked until the mid-1980s. Goss subsequently returned to Michigan as vice president of sales and marketing at Detroit's Faygo Beverages. In 1987, he moved to California and served as an executive at National Beverage Corporation until 1993, when he was named president and chief operating officer of PIA Merchandising. In March of 1997, Goss established and became managing partner/advisor of The Goss Group, Inc., a commercial insurance brokerage firm. That same year, he applied for and was hired as the first African American athletic director of the University of Michigan.

In 2000, Goss resigned from the University of Michigan and became chairman of The Goss Group, Inc. In 2001, The Goss Group, Marsh Inc. and the GMAC Insurance Group announced the establishment of a joint venture company, Goss LLC, where Goss also went on to serve as chairman.

Goss has served on numerous boards throughout his career, including the Barbara Ann Karmanos Institute, the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan, the Detroit Tigers Baseball Advisory Board, United American Healthcare Corporation, and Omni Care Health Plan Inc. He was the former board chair of the Detroit Workforce Development Board, and has served as a trustee to the African American Experience Fund of the National Parks Service & Foundation. His awards include the 2001 University of Michigan’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

Goss is married to Carol Goss. They have three children: Anika, Fatima and Maloni.

Tom Goss was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 24, 2014.

Magazine publisher Rodney J. Reynolds was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended the University of Cincinnati where he studied graphic design and advertising. Reynolds undertook his first publishing venture with a national, general purpose publication targeted towards African American men, Spectrum Magazine.

In 1992, Reynolds and Corporate Cleveland Magazine developed Minority Business, a quarterly publication where he served as publisher and editor. He went on to publish New Visions and Renaissance Magazine. He also developed Today, a magazine that focused on African American families. Reynolds founded RJR Communications, Inc. in 1992. In 1995, Reynolds, along with Forbes, Inc., began publishingAmerican Legacy Magazine, which centered on African American history and culture. In February of 2001, RJR Communications and New Millennium Studios, founded by entertainer Timothy Reid, launched American Legacy Television, a nationally syndicated television program. Reynolds has served on the board of directors for the Mount Vernon Public Library, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Central & Northern Westchester, the Harriett Tubman Home, and the Rye Country Day School. He was appointed as the diversity chairperson for the New York Blood Center - Westchester Region. In addition, Reynolds is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

In 1998, Reynolds received the “Forty Under 40 Award” from The Network Journal. In addition, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. honored his work with the Lillian Award. He received the Percy E. Sutton Award from the Harlem Business Alliance; the Visionary Award from the African American Men of Westchester; the National Business Leader of the Year Award from the African American Chamber of Commerce of Westchester & Rockland County; and the 2002 Triangle of Service Award from the Southeast Regional African American Preservation Alliance. In 2004, Reynolds received the inaugural Earl G. Graves Entrepreneurial Award; and, in 2005 he was the recipient of the W.O. Walker Community Excellence Award.

Rodney J. Reynolds was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 13, 2013.

Barry Williams was born on July 21, 1944, and raised by his parents, Otis and Ilza Williams, in a racially diverse community in Mt. Vernon, New York. His parents, both college graduates, instilled strong values of education, hard work, and family in their three children. Williams attended Grimes Elementary School as a young child. He graduated from George Washington Junior High, and later went to high school at a small boarding school in New England.

In 1962, Williams entered Harvard University. While there, he was elected class marshall and played college basketball. Williams received his B.A. degree in 1966 from Harvard University. He then won a fellowship through Corning Glass that allowed him to travel around the world for fourteen months. Williams traveled through Europe, Latin America, and Africa. In 1968, Williams returned to Harvard to study law and business. In 1971, he received his J.D. degree and M.B.A. degrees jointly from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.

Upon graduating, Williams moved to San Francisco where he worked at the international management consulting firm of McKinsey and Company until 1979. Harvard University awarded Williams the Harvard Medal in 1979 for his outstanding service in business and the community, and at Harvard University. Between 1979 and 1986, Williams worked as managing principal at Bechtel Group. In 1987, he founded Williams Pacific Ventures, Inc., a real estate and private equity investment and consulting firm.

Since 1990, Williams has served on the board of directors of Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He has served on the board of PG&E Corporation since 1996, and is also a member of the board for CH2M HILL; Simpson Manufacturing Company; Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company; SLM (Sallie Mae) Corporation; and the RH Donnellet Corporation. He has taught classes in entrepreneurship at the graduate business school of the University of California, Berkeley. During his six year term on the National Park Foundation board, Williams co-founded the African American Experience Fund. The objective of the fund is to raise money to support the National Park Foundation’s African American parks and historic sites. He has also served as a U.S. delegate for the Conference on National Parks in Durbin, South Africa. In 2000, Williams became interim president and CEO of the American Management Association, the largest national provider of seminars, and a senior mediator for the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS).

Williams lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Robert George Stanton was born on September 22, 1940 in Forth Worth, Texas. His mother was a short order cook and his father was a hay contractor. He grew up in Mosier Valley, one of the oldest African American communities in Texas, settled by free slaves. He graduated from I.M. Terrell High School in Forth Worth in 1959.

He earned his bachelor's of science degree from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin in 1963. The summer of his junior year in college he began his career with the National Park Service. Borrowing $250, he bought a train ticket to Wyoming and a park ranger's uniform and worked as a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park. Stanton, along with several other African Americans, was recruited by then Interior Secretary, Stewart Udall who traveled to predominately Black college campuses recruiting students.

In 1963, Stanton began his graduate studies at Boston University and went back to Huston-Tillotson to work as the director of public relations and alumni affairs from 1964 until 1966. That year, he took a full time job with the Park Service as a personnel management and public information specialist in the Washington, D.C. headquarters office. In 1969, he became a management assistant and in 1970, he was appointed superintendent of Virgin Islands National Park in St. Thomas. In 1974, Stanton became deputy regional director of the Southeast Region of the National Park Service in Atlanta and in 1976 he returned to Washington, D.C. as assistant director of park operations. In 1978, Stanton was named deputy regional director of the National Capital Region, where he remained until 1986. In 1987, he returned to headquarters as associate director for operations, and in 1988, he became the first African American to serve as director of the National Park Service. Stanton's nomination for the post by former President Clinton was the first that had to be approved by the U.S. Senate…he was confirmed unanimously. He retired from that position in 2003.

Stanton currently works as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M teaching courses on conservation. He has also taught at Yale University and been the recipient of numerous awards for his civic work and environmental stewardship.