Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Greenville Chamber announces 2021 Minority Business Accelerator cohort

Staff Report //December 17, 2020//

Greenville Chamber announces 2021 Minority Business Accelerator cohort

Staff Report //December 17, 2020//

Listen to this article

The ninth class of the Greenville Chamber’s Minority Business Accelerator recently graduated and last week the chamber named the eight small business owners set to take their place in the class for 2021.

Greenville Chamber's 2020 cohort poses for a photo. (Photo/Provided)The succeeding class will kick off the program in January with six months of coursework under the Interise StreetWise MBA curriculum program, taught by Wendell Jones, according to a news release. Participants will work in peer-to-peer mentor groups, meet with business coaches and implement growth strategies outlined by the program during the following months.

The S.C. Small Business Development Center will provide specialized training for participant organizations that do not yet qualify for the MBA program.

The Greenville Chamber’s MBA program is one of six in the nation offered by a chamber of commerce. Qualifying businesses must be based in the Upstate, socially or economically disadvantaged — minority, veteran or woman-owned — or be serving low-income communities, and a member of the Greenville or Spartanburg chamber of commerce.

Since the program’s inception, more than 110 participants graduated, generating 250 new full-time jobs and $23.5 million in additional revenue.

2020 MBA graduates include:

  • Monier Abusaft of I.B. Industries
  • Tamieka Alston-Gibson of Visions Medical Health Care Services
  • Tory Atkins of Tory Atkins Nationwide Agency
  • Duffy Baehr of Baehr Feet
  • Dannah Farr of Carolina Nursing Associates
  • Yukichi Hagins of Yukichi Hagins Realty
  • Shutoya Hudson of Hudson Brow and Waxing
  • Justin Jenkins of Paveway Express LTD Co.
  • Myson Jones of Hoops University
  • Ebony Sullivan of Cassy Electric LLC
  • Shonnette Sullivan of The Shekinah Group LLC
  • Justen Thompson of Carolina Southern Logistics

2021 MBA Class nominees include:

  • Shameka Argo of Points of Origin LLC
  • Willie Benjamin of Printing-Opportunity
  • Madeline Hawkins of Bloom Behavioral Therapy
  • Summer Lee of Palmetto Breakfast Club LLC dba Flying Biscuit Café
  • Michael Mance of Mance Multimedia LLC
  • Lauren Rogers of IB Construction and Development LLC
  • Dorothy Shain of Dorthy Shain Fine Art LLC
  • Larandas Yeargin of Silo Media Group

l