University News Desk

Earl G. Graves Sr., the nationally recognized authority on African American business development, was named today "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the prestigious Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS). BGS is the national honor society for business schools and its president, Dr. Queister Craig, was on hand today to personally present the award.

Mr. Graves publishes Black Enterprise Magazine and is Chairman and CEO of Pepsi-Cola of Washington, DC, the largest minority-controlled Pepsi-Cola franchise in the United States. He is also a general partner of Egoli Beverages, the Pepsi-Cola franchise bottler of South Africa.

Graves was the featured speaker today in Morgan State University's distinguished Bryson/Sawyer Lecture Series at Morgan's School of Business and Management
that bears his name. A staunch supporter of higher education, Mr. Graves made a $1-million pledge to Morgan State University to help advance business education at the school.

In his lecture today, Graves told students of the business school that today's "technology gap" can only be erased by addressing today's "education gap" and we can only do that, he said, when we begin to accept what he called the "new diversity" - the new face of America. He warned students that they face a different world in the future because of the events of September 11th. He urged the business school students to "rethink" but don't abandon their goals…make money but don't forget the big picture, that is, remember to give back and use their voices for the disenfranchised.