Tom Wood, the First Black Person to Take his Company Public

[Troy]

I first met Tom Wood two years ago when I shot this video.  Wood was the first Black member of a major U.S. bank’s board of directors, when he became a member of the Chase Manhattan Bank board of directors under the chairmanship of David Rockefeller. 

 

This would be Tom's last interview.  He passed three week later. 

 

 

[Dee Miller]

@Troy wow! Great interview!  There are four things that really caught my attention. Tom Wood  said: 

 

1) when the door is open, you have to be prepared to walk through it,  and you gotta be prepared to climb the mountain. His conversations with Martin Luther King included MLK, saying to never give up.

 

2) Black people are starting to respect their abilities - where as before,  blacks relied on white people to vouch for and validate them.

 

3) you don’t have to have a college degree, but  be an excellent at whatever you do.

 

4) Mr Wood had the audacity to walk through the door and climb the mountain to obtain  his engineering degree even though the assistant dean of engineering told him to change his major, because he will never get a job.

 

BLACK GREATNESS!!! 

[Troy]

Thanks for watching the video @Dee Miller 

 

Your idea to create this forum was a good idea. It is really important to note that we must actively celebrate our greatness. 

 

I have 27 hundred followers on YouTube and after 2 years the Tom Wood has been watched 87 times (YouTube does not report embedded views, as posted above because they want you to watch video directly on YouTube.

 

The videos YouTube want you to watch at best don't serve us very well. YouTube's algorithm is designed to keep you engaged on YouTube, so that more advertising revenue can be generated.  The video below which I only uploaded to YouTube to make it easier for me to share with a few people was watched 22,000 times in the first 12 hours.

 

I can't afford to pay YouTube to show the Tom Wood video that many times.  Again, we have to actively share our greatness.  That is what made the magazines you shared so important.