Baltimore · Washington, D.C.
The Presidents’ Round Tablebrings together accomplished Black CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs to advance economic equity, build generational wealth, and ensure that Black business leadership is a driving force in the Baltimore-Washington region and beyond.
The Presidents’ Roundtable is an organization of 17 African American entrepreneurs in the Baltimore–Washington, D.C. region. Our members employ more than 1,750 workers and oversee and control assets exceeding $1.1 billion.
Founded in 1983, PRT is a results-driven organization of high-growth African American business owners that strives to improve access to opportunities for all minority entrepreneurs, enhance the quality of life in our communities, help members build business capacity, and support one another through sharing resources and peer experience.
The Presidents’ RoundTable was founded in 1983 by a group of visionary Black business leaders who understood that collective power produces what individual effort cannot. In a majority-Black city, they built a room where accomplished Black entrepreneurs could gather, share what they knew, and make sure their people were not left behind.
What began as a peer gathering has grown into one of the most respecte business networks in the Baltimore-Washington region. PRT members employ thousands of people, oversee significant assets, and sit at the tables where Baltimore’s economic future is decided. The organization has been a steady voice for minority
business enterprise — through policy advocacy, direct partnership, and the long, slow work of building trust in institutions.
Today, PRT is entering its next chapter. We are deepening our partnerships with city and state institutions, expanding our programming through the PRT Reach Foundation, and continuing our tradition of convening the leaders who shape what is possible for Black business in Maryland and beyond.
The PRT Reach Foundation works in close collaboration with the Presidents’ Roundtable to promote social welfare and improve the economic conditions of small and minority businesses, and the community at large.
PRT Reach supports education and encourages college students to become entrepreneurs. In three years, the Foundation has awarded more than $80,000 in scholarships to minority students enrolled in entrepreneurial programs at historically Black colleges and universities across the region.
The Foundation pursues its mission through professional development activities, outreach programs, and intellectual works not readily accessible through other means.
We open doors to procurement, capital, and decision-makers that historically have been closed to minority-owned firms.
Through peer counsel and shared playbooks, members scale operations, governance, and balance sheets with confidence.
We invest in the Baltimore–Washington corridor — its workers, its students, and the entrepreneurs who follow us.
Four decades in, we mentor the next generation of owner-operators so the work outlives any one boardroom.
We hold ourselves and our members to the highest standard of leadership and performance.
We show up for one another and for our community with consistency and integrity.
We use our collective voice and influence to shape the policies, programs, and systems that determine who wins in Maryland's economy.
Everything we build is designed to last beyond us and serve the generations that follow.
The success of one member strengthens the entire network, and the network exists to strengthen the community.
PRT was founded on the belief that Black business leaders should not have to navigate growth and opportunity, alone. From the beginning, the organization has served as a trusted space where insight is shared candidly, relationships carry weight, and access to information and capital is treated as essential rather than incidental.
Our founding vision is when accomplished Black business leaders are connected to one another and to the institutions that shape their city, the impact reaches well beyond individual companies and into the economic life of the broader community.
The Presidents’ Roundtable is an organization of 17 African American entrepreneurs in the Baltimore–Washington, D.C. region. Our members employ more than 1,750 workers and oversee and control assets exceeding $1.1 billion.
Founded in 1983, PRT is a results-driven organization of high-growth African American business owners that strives to improve access to opportunities for all minority entrepreneurs, enhance the quality of life in our communities, help members build business capacity, and support one another through sharing resources and peer experience.
A small group of Baltimore business owners convene to confront the structural barriers facing African American entrepreneurs and to share what worked in their own firms.
Membership expands across the Baltimore–Washington corridor. The Roundtable becomes a fixture in regional procurement and policy conversations.
PRT formalizes its scholarship program and launches the annual Scholarship Awards Gala, honoring leaders who have moved the needle for minority enterprise.
Seventeen members oversee assets exceeding $1.1B and employ more than 1,750 workers — a working proof of the founders' thesis.
Founding Member
Founding Member
Founding Member
Founding Member
Atlas Insurance Agency
Brunson Communications (WEBB-AM Radio)
Parks Sausage Company
Community Foods (Super Pride Supermarkets)
Otis Warren Real Estate Service
Broadway Payne (McDonald's Restaurants)
March Funeral Homes
Lambert Insurance Agency
Four Seas Seven Winds Travel Agency
Jackson Oil Company
G & M Oil Company
Afro-American Newspapers
Security America Services
Brown Capital Management
The Harbor Bank of Maryland
The Presidents' Roundtable & PRT Reach Foundation
President, Mahogany, Inc.
President, Penan & Scott, P.C.
Managing Partner, Edwards and Hill Office Furniture
Peer counsel. Closed-door working sessions where members debate succession, capital structure, and the operational realities of running a high-growth firm.
Entrepreneur training. Public sessions led by members on branding, financing, contract management, and the discipline of building wealth.
Scholarship & gala. The annual Scholarship Awards Gala funds the next generation and honors the leaders who have moved the work forward.
Policy & procurement. Legislative receptions and CEO briefings keep the Roundtable at the table on the policy decisions that shape minority enterprise.
CEO, Baltimore Gas and Electric
President & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Chairman & CEO, Ariel Investments
Pastor, Bethel A.M.E. Church
To be announced
To be announced
