Graduates from Grambling State University have become a part of our Black history. Graduates who have pursued a career in business have shown the world that we can all be more than just performers or athletes.
Denise Young Smith and Thomas A. Moorehead have definitely proved that we can all be at the top of the board at a leading software company and do more than just own a high value car.
Denise Young Smith is one of the highest-ranking African American women in Silicon Valley. She graduated from Grambling with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in organizational management, and she is now Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Human Resources. Smith is responsible for retaining Apple’s top talent and spent 10 years helping Apple build the retail organization that they are so widely known for.
Thomas A. Moorehead earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Grambling in 1966 and went on to pursue his doctorate at the University of Michigan.
When offered the opportunity to work as a car salesman, he declined; however, after seeing the finances of Bradley Automotive Group, he began as a car salesman and went on to pursue owning his own dealership after graduating from the General Motors’ Dealership Program. Moorehead was the first to graduate from this program.
In 1988, he opened his first automobile dealership in Omaha, Nebraska. He sold this operation in 1995 and bought a franchise in Decatur, Illinois. In 2000, he stopped operating his franchise in Decatur because he was awarded a BMW franchise. Now, he has made history as the first African American to open a Rolls Royce dealership in America as of December 2013.
These two African-American individuals have paved the way for upcoming Grambling graduates.