obama Archives - SHOPPE BLACK

Published on January 6, 2018

4 mins read

Black Owned Construction Firms Hired for $300 Million Obama Foundation Project

Three Black-owned construction firms joined forces to form the Presidential Partners consortium. It has recently been announced that this new joint venture will take the lead on the $300 million construction of the Obama Presidential Center. Construction is one of the most lucrative industries on the planet. There are many successful construction companies across the world, going to projeco.com.au show you this. It is great to see business booming and small businesses with also hopefully benefit from this large-scale project. Both in the United States and across the Pond in the United Kingdom, it can be a real challenge for businesses to thrive. This is why they often choose to cut costs wherever possible. One really useful way of doing this is opting to lease a van rather than buying outright. UK based IVL are helping small businesses to do this.

The Presidential Partners consortium of Powers & Sons Construction, UJAMAA Construction, Brown & Momen, and Safeway Construction. These companies represent some of the most established and well-respected Black owned construction firms in Chicago. It is wonderful that Chicago is home to so many excellent construction firms that are experiencing high levels of success across the country. It is reflected in their customer satisfaction ratings and the number of top of the range equipment, like a scabbler, that they have to help them carry out their job.

Alone, none of these companies had the experience to win the bid to construct the institution that is slated for Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Together, according Mike Strautmanis, vice president at the Obama Foundation, it was an easy choice.

“One, they’re talented,” Strautmanis says. “We know they’ve been involved in other construction projects around the city and the Midwest, so between them all we knew they could handle the complexity.”

Jimmy Akintonde, CEO , Ujaama Construction

President Obama himself signed off on the new team, and Strautmanis says the selection is part of the president’s commitment to the community.

“We want to set the stage for a new model,” Strautmanis says. “The new model is you don’t have to have a white firm with minority partners on the side. You want to have real diversity: minority firms in the lead with a seat at the table.”

Ernest Brown, President, Brown & Momen, Inc

According to Next City, community activists and residents are reportedly still pressing the foundation to sign a contract guaranteeing well-paid, long-term jobs to local residents.

Obama has said that he will not sign such a contract. But the foundation believes that in selecting a construction management team, it has “picked firms that demonstrated they could handle the community’s concerns,” according to the Tribune.

Construction is slated to begin by the end of the year. It will start on the west side of Jackson Park.

The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in 2020.

Published on October 13, 2017December 23, 2017

1 min read

Amy Sherald to paint Michelle Obama’s Official Portrait

Baltimore artist Amy Sherald, who graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004 and just joined the faculty there, has been commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery to paint the official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama.

New York-based Kehinde Wiley will paint the official portrait of President Barack Obama.

The paintings are scheduled to be unveiled next year and added to the National Portrait Gallery’s popular collection of presidential and first lady portraits.

Sherald’s portraits of African-American models are known for her use of gray skin tones.

Last year, she became the first African-American and first woman to win the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition; she was chosen for the $25,000 award from among 2,500 entrants.

Work by the Baltimore-based Sherald, 44, is in collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

She will give a free talk at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in Room 101 of the F. Ross Jones Building, Mattin Center, on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University.

Source: The Baltimore Sun

Published on April 22, 2017November 8, 2017

1 min read

Obama taps Chicago pro to handle his Finances – CRAIN

Now that he doesn’t have to try to balance the federal budget, former President Barack Obama is getting his family’s financial house in order.

He’s tapped a Chicago professional to help him with the task, taking E. “Robbie” Robinson Jr. away from Chicago investment titan BDT Capital Partners, LLC (BDT) for just a year, until January, according to sources familiar with the move.

Robinson, 40, has been a managing director at BDT since 2009, when he followed his investment banker mentor and the firm’s founder, Byron Trott, to BDT from Goldman Sachs Group.

Robbie and D’rita Robinson – Photo credit: Eric Unger

Robinson has been counseling the ex-president on everything from his recent book deal to directing money to his foundation and charities to investing his growing wealth, the sources said.

When Obama signed a book deal with Penguin Random House in February for the rights to his memoirs, the value of the agreement wasn’t disclosed, but some media reported that he and his wife, Michelle Obama, were paid $60 million for a package that includes a book by her, too.

Both of the Obamas are former lawyers who met when they worked together at Chicago law firm Sidley Austin.

Click to read full article by LYNNE MAREK @ CRAIN