Last year, the Recording Academy and social justice nonprofit Color of Change announced their joint initiative, #ChangeMusic, to bring equity to Black creators and professionals in the music industry. This week, Color of Change continues that work by partnering with Diverse Representation — a database of Black agents, attorneys, managers, and publicists in the sports and entertainment industries — to launch the Black Music Executives Pipeline Program. According to Forbes, this new program is the first to be released from #ChangeMusic and will rely on the expertise of both the non-profit organization and diversity database to help increase the number of active Black executives in the music industry. Additionally, the program will also be responsible for creating an effective tool that will “allow record labels, publishers, video production companies, streaming services and touring companies to quickly identify and hire Black professionals,” Billboard reports. While #ChangeMusic was...

Aligned with some major growth plans, New York-based ExecOnline closed a $45 million Series D funding round. Co-founded in 2012 by Stephen Bailey, Mark Ozer, Barry Goldberg, and Julia Alexander, ExecOnline provides executive education programs and training solutions certified by educational institutions. The company partners with business schools around the world to bring democratized access to leadership development at large companies. “We feel like we have a differentiated and compelling story having pioneered this space,” The company’s CEO Bailey told AfroTech in an interview. “We hopefully want to create awareness that there is a new way to develop leaders that can create much more equity outcomes at organizations.” This latest funding round was led by OMERS Growth Equity with participation from previous investors including Kaplan, Osage Ventures, NewSpring and ABS Capital Partners. ExecOnline plans to use the Series D to further develop its online platform, expand its...

M·A·C Cosmetics, a leading global provider and purveyor of health and beauty products, has announced that it has named Aïda Moudachirou Rebois as the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing. In a press release announcement, it was revealed that Moudachirou Rebois will oversee the Consumer Marketing and Product Marketing teams with a dotted line management responsibility for Product Development to drive global Consumer Engagement strategies and deliver breakthrough Product Innovation in order to maximize consumer connection to M·A·C Cosmetics. “Aïda has an innovative and flexible leadership style, cross-industry experience and global brand-building expertise, which combined with her multilingual, multicultural background, will undoubtedly help to drive the global M·A·C  business forward in our complex fast-changing environment,” said Philippe Pinatel , Global Brand President of M·A·C Cosmetics, in the press release announcement. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome her to the...

Black executives in the entertainment industry are steadily climbing the leadership ladder. According to an exclusive from Variety , Westbrook Media —  a digital subsidiary of Westbrook Inc. launched by founders Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Miguel Melendez, and Ko Yada — has shared that it’s tapped three seasoned executives — Sterling Milan, Jabari Hearn, and Drew Miles — for senior roles at the company. Seasoned producer Sterling Milan joins the company as the full-time head of original content, following his recent stint as an in-house executive producer, showrunning and directing series and specials for Westbrook Media originals. In a statement shared with Variety , Lukas Kaiser — SVP, head of content at Westbrook Media — said: “I’ve been a friend and a fan of Sterling’s for over a decade — and bringing him on to lead the creative side of production on numerous projects over the past few months has been a joy. We’re thrilled to bring him into the Westbrook Media family to help...

Georgia Power just made an electric move! The utility company based in Atlanta announced that Chris Womack has been elected by the Georgia Power Board of Directors to become the company’s new chairman, president, and CEO. Womack will succeed current chairman Paul Bowers who is set to retire in April 2021. Although he won’t retire until next year, Womack will assume his new role on Nov. 1, 2020, and will also take over additional responsibilities as both CEO and chairman once Bowers completely steps down. “It’s an exciting time to be back at Georgia Power, especially when we’re poised to make history with the first new nuclear units in the U.S. in decades, said Womack who currently serves as the president and executive vice president of External Affairs for Southern Co., the parent company of Georgia Power. He expresses his excitement to rejoin the Georgia Power family. “This company has an incredible legacy of delivering world-class customer service and reliability to Georgians,...

When Horace Williams left his executive position at Oracle, he wanted to create something that could have a huge impact on his community. The New York-native began developing his own platform focused on civic engagement in 2013 and Empowrd was born. Empowrd is based in Atlanta where the startup scene is taking off for Black entrepreneurs. Williams said the city has become communal space for Black founders and many leaders are leaning on each other to foster success. Empowrd is an app for individuals and organizations to stay informed and to motivate political action. Users can access news, contact elected officials and find ways to get engaged within their communities. Organizations use the app to conduct surveys on their constituents, build partnerships with influencers and political leaders, and access data analytics. Photo: Empowrd AfroTech had a chance to chat with Williams about Empowrd and the problem he’s trying to solve using tech. This interview has been lightly edited for...