UBR Spotlight: Toasting the Success of Black Vintner Jerry Bias

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Renita D. Young talks with Jerry Bias, founder and CEO of Sugarleaf Vineyards, a boutique winery in North Garden, Virginia. Bias is also a co-founder of Cyrus Capital Partners, a credit hedge fund managing more than $2 billion in assets.

An accomplished financial industry veteran, Bias began his career as a head trader on Wall Street, ultimately building an enviable resume with such firms Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, where he served as a managing director in the high yield trading department. Bias then took his love for wine and acquired an 126-acre estate to build one of the few African American-owned wineries on the East Coast. Bias joins the Roundtable to share how he transformed his personal passion and hobby into a thriving enterprise.

Also, UBR Contributor Jason Smith sits down with Dr. Scott J. Allen, an assistant professor at John Carroll University and co-author of The Little Book of Leadership Development: 50 Ways to Bring Out The Leader in Every Employee (AMACOM). Allen, who teaches leadership and management at John Carroll, consults, conducts workshops and leads retreats across the country. Allen is also founder of the Center for Leadership Development. He sits down with Smith to share why leadership development is a key requirement for business success.

In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I make the case for why golf remains the sport for business. After avoiding to committing to the sport for years, I am now preparing to compete for the first time in the Black Enterprise Golf & Tennis Challenge this Labor Day Weekend. I didn’t gain a true appreciation for how important golf could be for building business relationships until I was invited to play in the Shell Houston Open ProAm by Shell Oil President Marvin Odum earlier this year. Now, I’m challenging those business people with ready-made reasons for avoiding the sport to reconsider their position.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.