Frederick McKinney to Receive Minority Business Leadership Award

The Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award, from the Minority Business Development Agency, recognizes leaders who have expanded minority business enterprise and created diversity.

According to Christopher Garcia, the acting national director of the MBDA, “the award recognizes the individuals who have achieved significant results in creating diversity, expanding minority business enterprise and who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in the public or private sector.”

McKinney holds a B.A. in economics from UCLA and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale. Prior to joining Tuck, McKinney was the president and CEO of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council (2001-2015). He also served as an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Business (1987-2000) and Brandeis University’s Heller School for Advanced Studies of Social Policy (1983-87).

This award has a special resonance for McKinney. While pursuing a career in minority business development, McKinney looked up to Ronald H. Brown, the first and so far only, African American Secretary of Commerce.

“His appointment as Secretary of Commerce sent a clear message to minority entrepreneurs and to Corporate America that the future of the United States economy would include diverse businesses,” McKinney said. “It was during his tenure at DOC that supplier diversity experienced its most rapid growth. It was also during his tenure that I taught entrepreneurship and economics at the University of Connecticut School of Business, and operated and owned a multi-million-dollar wholesale coffee company in New Haven, CT.  Secretary Brown provided entrepreneurs like myself a role model that said African Americans deserved a seat at the table.”

McKinney continues, “it is with humility and a great sense of pride that I accept this award on behalf of minority businesses and those who support the inclusion of minority businesses in the American economy.  And I also must thank my dear friend and colleague Professor Len Greenhalgh of the Tuck School of Business for recommending me for this honor.”

McKinney will receive the award during National Minority Enterprise Development Week (October 22-28, 2017), at the Annual Convention of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, in Detroit.