Eddie C. Brown, founder and president of Brown Capital Management, a Baltimore-based investment management firm, will be honored with the 2010 Business Leader of the Year Award by Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business and Management at a dinner on Thursday, Nov. 18 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore. A cocktail reception will begin at 5:45 p.m., followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.
"Mr. Brown’s entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to providing opportunities for underprivileged youth have helped Brown Capital Management become recognized as a leader in forward-thinking, socially responsible business," said Loyola's President, Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J. "His philanthropy and vision have played a significant role in strengthening the Baltimore region’s business and civic communities, and we’re delighted to honor him as our Business Leader of the Year.”
A 40-year veteran in investment management, Brown served as a vice president and portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price Associates for 10 years before launching Brown Capital Management, one of the nation’s oldest African-American-owned investment firms, in 1983. Brown, a chartered financial analyst (CFA) and chartered investment counselor (CIC), earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Howard University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from New York University, and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He was honored with his wife, Sylvia Brown, as the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) Philanthropists of the Year in 2002; voted Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the Maryland financial services category in 2003; inducted into the Maryland Chamber of Commerce Business Hall of Fame in 2004; honored with his wife with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Arthritis Foundation in 2005; and in 2006, received Maryland Life magazine’s Marylander of Distinction award. In addition, Brown was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by both Howard University and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Most recently, he received the 2010 Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the 2010 Wallace L. Jones Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management.
A former member of the Maryland Economic Development Commission and the board of the East Baltimore Development Corporation, Brown has played a critical role in working with Johns Hopkins University, the City of Baltimore, and the State of Maryland to advance the urban redevelopment project underway on Baltimore’s east side. The continuing project is the largest housing, commercial, and life sciences initiative in the history of Baltimore.
In 2002, Brown and his family announced the creation of and funded the Turning the Corner Achievement Program (TCAP), an educational initiative for African-American middle school students in Baltimore. Initially, the program was based at middle schools on the east and west sides of Baltimore and was managed jointly by Associated Black Charities and the Baltimore Community Foundation. The program was subsequently moved to the Cross Roads School at the Living Classrooms Foundation. TCAP provides these middle school students with a combination of educational, cultural, and personal support designed to prepare them for success in high school and beyond.
Brown embodies many of the values the Sellinger School strives to instill in its students, most notably commitment to ethics and concern for the greater community.
“These last few years have been among the most challenging times in the history of the investment management field, and yet Mr. Brown’s integrity, engagement with his community, and adherence to the ideals upon which he built his business have never wavered,” said Karyl B. Leggio, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. “He represents the type of community-engaged business leader that we strive to help our students become.”
The Sellinger School has honored a Business Leader of the Year since 1983, recognizing those whose vision, dedicated effort, and singular commitment to the highest ideals of business have distinguished them and their organizations as among the very best in the nation. Ellen Kullman, chairman of the board and CEO of DuPont, was honored in 2009.
For more information on this year's Business Leader of the Year Award Dinner or to sponsor a table, please visit www.loyola.edu/businessleader or call Allison Rubin at 410-617-2973.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.