new places, new faces - Black Enterprise/Bank of America Entrepreneurs Conference

Black Enterprise, Nov, 2001 by Paula Mccoy-Pinderhughes

"No matter what I've faced, personally or professionally," said Steward, "what keeps me going is a passage from The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. `It's not the strongest or the smartest that survive, but the ones most adaptable to change.'"

And change is what Sandra C. Rozier experienced when she attended the Entrepreneurs Conference for the first time in 1999, when it was held in Orlando, Florida. "I was working as the director of corporate marketing at a health insurance company, a firm that I had been with for 13 years. Although I enjoyed what I did and felt secure in my position, I knew that I wanted another challenge and I asked God to guide me in discovering what that might be."

Rozier, who has been a frequent attendee of the BE/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge, learned of the Entrepreneurs Conference while there. "I really didn't have a set agenda or even a plan for what presentations I would attend and I kind of wandered into the The Exchange Expo hall just viewing all of the interesting booths and opportunities for the black business community." Rozier happened upon the Choice Hotels booth and began talking at length to Wendy Grant, who is in charge of diversity for the 4,500-hotel chain. "Wendy aggressively pursued me because up until that point there were no African American franchisees for the brand and Choice wanted to change that."

Later that night, Rozier attended the VIP reception, where she met Earl G. Graves Sr., who encouraged her to go for it. "I initially told him that I felt God led me to the conference and that maybe I'd found my answer with the hotel industry. Mr. Graves suggested that I speak with some of the BE 100s, share my story, and vigorously pursue my dream."

Today, Rozier, now an annual conference attendee, is president and CEO of Spears Global Marketing and Development L.L.C., a $400,000 marketing firm in Pontiac, Michigan, whose clients include, among others, the very health insurance company she left to realize her entrepreneurial vision and become the first African American woman to own a Quality Suites Hotel & Conference Center, a hotel that has 102 luxury suites and banquet/meeting rooms to accommodate up to 300 people.

"It hasn't been easy," says Rozier. "I had to come back home and raise approximately $3 million to fund the $10 million hotel project. I knew that I believed in myself and that I would never take `no' for an answer. So I set out to see what funds were available through the city and state, and then I tapped friends and family."

Two executives she sought out had companies on the BE lists: Don Coleman, president and CEO of Don Coleman Advertising, No. 1 on the BE ADVERTISING AGENCIES list with $270 million in billings, who is a member of Rozier's church, and Anthony Snoddy, CEO of Exemplar Manufacturing Co. in Ypsilanti, Michigan, No. 21 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $165 million in sales.

"I can't say enough about those guys. They believed in me and in what I was trying to accomplish. They, along with countless others, made my dream a reality. I am truly blessed and it all started because of BE."