Millionaire mom$

Ebony, Sept, 1994

Valerie Daniels-Carter is a major force in the fast-food industry and in her Milwaukee home. The thirtysomething career woman owns 32 Burger King franchises in Wisconsin and Michigan and expects annual sales to top $30 million this year alone. Surprisingly, she says her greatest achievement isn't creating a booming business, but building nurturing relationships with her husband of 10 years, Jeffrey A. Carter, and their 7-month-old son, Jeffrey Jr.

High-powered, yet maternal, women like Daniels-Carter, Chicago construction firm co-owner Sandra Jiles and Atlanta executive Juanita Nixon form an emerging circle of African-American career women who have it all - thriving businesses, fulfilling family lives and a net worth that easily exceeds the $1 million mark.

Although the gender and racial hurdles Black women encounter at the executive level are set even higher than the ones they faced as entry-level workers, these women cut their own slice of the American pie and still assume the role of the consummate wife and mother.

"If there were 48 hours in a day there might be enough time for me to do what needs to be done," says Juanita Nixon, wife of Boston Red Sox outfielder Otis Nixon and former spouse of boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard.

Besides maintaining the day-to-day operation of an electronics business she and her husband established two years ago, the 38-year-old is the anchor of a home that now includes five children, her two sons, Ray Leonard Jr. and Jarrel, and her husband's off-spring, twin sons, Travion and Travian, and daughter, Genesis.

Each morning Juanita Nixon awakes at 6 o'clock to prepare breakfast, before taking the children to school. She returns home for a quick workout before heading to the office, where she plows through paperwork and negotiates client contracts. If she's lucky she sees her Boston-based husband every three weeks during the baseball season.

It's a frenetic pace that she has learned to appreciate, but she admits, "You need to know your limits."

But if the Nixons closed their electronics firm tomorrow, they would still be financially well-off. The outfielder has a lucrative three-year, $9 million contract with the Red Sox. His wife, whose divorce from Leonard resulted in a huge settlement, has a personal net worth in the ballpark of $7 million.

Juanita Nixon enjoys the spoils of her plivileged life, but she places an even greater value on time-honored ideals. "Material things come and go," Nixon notes, "but even if I had a net worth of $50, I'd still have a life of luxury because I appreciate life itself."

Sandra Dixon Jiles of Chicago is another career woman who critically weighs the value of life and luxury. Although the 44-year-old entrepreneur never thought of herself as a millionaire, she concedes that if her assets, including her 15 percent share of UBM Inc., the construction consulting firm she helped to create, were liquidated, "It would be close."

Jiles started the firm with partners Paul King and Sham Dabadghao in 1975. She selves as president, her associates King and Dabadghao as chairman and corporate secretary, respectively.

Jiles says the firm turned many a bumpy corner before finding the road to success. "Never in my wildest dreams did I expect it to last this long," she says of the firm that now brings in about $17 million in sales.

As a woman executive, Jiles says she has had her share of injustices. "It has been difficult dealing in an industry dominated by men, and then by White men," she explains. "Sometimes you don't know if they are treating you the way they do because you're Black or because you're a woman."

Nevertheless the firms sustained success allows her to spend less time in the office and more time with her sons, David, 14, and Nathaniel, 23, and her husband of 16 years, Leroy Jiles, an educator and personal commodities trader.

Success on the workfront, however, does not always translate into success at home. Jiles' family gradually accepted her role as a major breadwinner. "My husband is a traditional kind of man who, despite being proud of my success and the success of the company, would also prefer that I would be at home as a housewife," Jiles reveals.

Balancing business and personal matters is possible, she says, but its not always easy. "You have to be organized to pull it all off."

Managing a career and a family hasn't disturbed the livelihood of Milwaukee's Daniels-Carter. Often, she says, people are surprised by her affable nature, but the Burger King franchiser claims wealth hasn't changed anything in her life but the bottom line. "The basics make you happy no matter how successful you are," she says. "I still like to take bubble baths, kick [my] feet up and eat barbecue."

She and her brother, John Daniels, an attorney, began the fast-food firm in 1984. Today, Daniels-Carter serves as president and CEO of the company in which her brother is still a 50/50 partner.

A pampering mother, Daniels-Carter goes few places without her 7-month-old son in tow. "Generally, if I'm going to be gone overnight [on business], I take my son with me," says Daniels-Carter. Her mother-in-law, Rose Ann Carter, watches the baby during the day and assists with child care on trips.