Donald Cravins, Jr., the nation’s first Under Secretary for Minority Business Development, participated in an energetic and engaging conversation with NAIC President & CEO Robert L. Greene. Cravins, who leads the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) in serving the nation’s 9.7 million minority business enterprises, recounted the MBDA’s origins – growing out of the Civil Rights Movement to include economic rights. He shared his three key priorities: building a team to reflect the MBDA’s status as a permanent agency, optimizing its 88 business centers, and establishing MBDA as a convener bringing small businesses and leaders together to effect positive change. The former Executive Vice President and COO of the National Urban League shared how the challenges faced by his parents – serial entrepreneurs who operated an insurance company, a Creole restaurant, a grocery store and a Black newspaper – affects his perspectives on small businesses. He expressed his dissatisfaction with corporate America and capital access and discussed the state of supplier diversity and how the MBDA is helping close the wealth gap. Cravins said, “My job is to get rid of the reason or the excuse of ‘we can’t find minority firms to do certain things.”