Owners League: Meet the Black Business Leaders Quietly Building in the DMV

 

 

This Black Business Month, we’re not doing a “support Black businesses” post. You’ve seen those. They show up in August, disappear by Labor Day, and move nothing. Instead, we went into the DMV and asked a harder question: who is building something that opens doors for the rest of us?

Not who has the best brand. Not who got the most press. Who is creating real economic infrastructure: contracts, deal flow, partnerships, jobs, wealth vehicles, and models worth replicating?

 

The answer is this list.

 

Twelve founders. Twelve businesses. Every one of them operating across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia corridor. Collectively, they represent billions in captured contracts, AI chips headed for defense applications, landmark buildings rising out of the ground, a private membership club expanding to Africa, and a social club built on a former Black Panther headquarters.

 

This is the Owners League. These are the founders our network should know by name.

Travis Mack founded Saalex Corporation in 1999 right as the dotcom bubble was crashing, pivoted into aerospace and defense, and built it into a $175 million-revenue firm with 1,200+ employees serving the Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA. He’s completed 11+ acquisitions, structured the company as 40% employee-owned through an ESOP, and was ranked #25 on the Washington Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies in Greater DC. A decorated, service-disabled U.S. Navy veteran, Mack also runs Valeo Networks (a $20M commercial IT firm), founded the Greenwood Self Storage Fund (a $25M PE fund), and launched The Mack Foundation to support underserved communities. SBA Small Business of the Year. Executive programs at Dartmouth Tuck, USC Marshall, and UCLA Anderson. This is what building an empire from a pivot looks like.

Over $3.2 billion in captured government contracts. Let that number sit. Jerrod Moton built Goldman Edwards into a federal IT consulting powerhouse, supporting agencies from the VA to the Pentagon to DHS, where he once served as Deputy Branch Chief. He architected the $119 million ServiceNow contract for the VA, the largest civilian ITSM deal at the time. He sits on the Maryland Economic Council, appointed by the governor, and co-founded The Moton Family Foundation with his wife Tatiana. This is what institutional-scale Black ownership looks like in government contracting.

Three generations deep. First Choice Construction started in the mid-1970s when Beverly and Audrey Jones launched a small masonry operation. Their son Cory Sr. scaled it into a full-service firm. Now Cory Jr., a UVA grad and former Turner Construction engineer, serves as President. One of the largest minority-owned masonry contractors in the DMV with 100+ employees, working on projects like the Purple Line. This is what legacy-building looks like when each generation sharpens the blade.

A DC native who went from DC Public Schools to the Air Force to founding one of the District’s most decorated small businesses. V-Tech Solutions, now 25+ years strong, delivers IT, health, and professional services to federal and commercial clients. Named 2020 HUBZone Small Business of the Year and 2026 DC Chamber Small Business Person of the Year, Holt recently opened the $4.5 million Holt Building in Georgetown, housing V-Tech’s HQ, a wellness venture, and The Holt Family Foundation. Mayor Bowser showed up. So did the receipts.

Evens Charles is a DC native who went from paperboy to building a nine-figure hotel and multifamily portfolio across seven states. Frontier Development, which he founded in 1998, now has $1.1 billion in development underway, including Hilton and Marriott branded assets and a $500M+ waterfront project in Ward 7 delivering 1,100 apartments (66% affordable), a Marriott hotel, retail, and a neighborhood park with a 100% minority development team. His Hyatt House at 899 O St. NW marked his first hotel in his hometown. Ranked on Black Enterprise’s Top 100 largest Black-owned businesses. Recipient of President Biden’s Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Temple University football alum with an endowed scholarship in his name. Charles didn’t just invest in real estate. He invested in the idea that a kid from DC could reshape the city’s skyline.

Twenty years in commercial real estate, including a VP stint at JLL and Deputy Director of Capital Construction for the DC government. Paul Blackman launched Trusted Advisory Group in 2020 to consult for property owners and tenants with a focus on community impact. He’s managed over $4 billion in projects, earned a Master’s in Real Estate Development from Georgetown, and completed Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. He helped break ground on Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, a project personal to him: his grandfather had to travel 40 minutes from Southeast DC just to access adequate care.

Hafeezah Muhammad founded Backpack Healthcare in 2021 after struggling to find mental healthcare for her own son and discovering she wasn’t alone: 42 million children are on Medicaid, over 20 million struggle with mental health symptoms, and only 14% of providers accept Medicaid. She built a tech-enabled pediatric mental health company that now employs 95 people and just closed a $14 million Series A to expand into new markets and scale its proprietary AI solutions. Before founding Backpack, Muhammad spent nearly 20 years at Verizon rising to VP of Revenue Operations, then served as VP at Thriveworks. She didn’t pivot from corporate out of boredom. She pivoted because the system was failing kids and she had the operational chops to fix it.

A DC native, Purdue-educated electrical engineer, and former NCAA All-American who chose silicon over the pros. Tayo founded Lola Vision Systems to design AI chiplet semiconductors for defense, aerospace, and automotive. He won $125K at InvestFest, participated in Techstars, and is targeting production by 2027. In an industry where Black founders are nearly invisible, Tayo is building the literal hardware that powers autonomy and national security. The company is named after his daughter.

Five DC natives: Maia Shanklin Roberts, Imani Shanklin Roberts, Tau Shanklin Roberts, Camille Hall, and Nicholas Hall. What started at a music festival in 2019 became five years of pop-ups, then a permanent home at 2325 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan. The building once served as DC’s Black Panther Party headquarters. Now it’s a Black-owned, woman-owned social club with a kitchen, craft cocktail program, rotating art gallery, and food incubator for the next generation of DC food entrepreneurs. Featured in The Washington Post. This is cultural infrastructure with a business model.

Mike and John Burns are brothers who left corporate America during COVID to build something of their own. Mike, a West Point grad, Army veteran, and former Fortune 500 Chief Diversity Officer, handles operations and strategy. John, a Georgetown Law-trained attorney who spent 13 years in practice, drives business development and innovation. Together they built a culture-driven agency spanning hospitality, marketing, events, and talent development. Their flagship, HQ DC House, is a private membership club in downtown DC that’s hosted Kerry Washington, Ava DuVernay, and produced the White House Juneteenth concerts in 2023 and 2024. Now they’re expanding to Nairobi with HQ Kenya House, the first African American-owned private membership club in Africa, and have supported the creation of 20,000+ jobs across six African nations through their partnership with CCI Global. Featured in ESSENCE, AfroTech, and FOX 5. This isn’t just hospitality. It’s diaspora infrastructure.

Fonta Gilliam spent a decade as a U.S. diplomat across Asia and Africa, launching women’s business centers and designing financing facilities to unlock capital for underserved communities. She won the State Department’s prestigious Franklin Award for her work in economic empowerment across Africa. Then she built Wellthi, a venture-backed fintech company creating AI-powered virtual branch software for banks and credit unions. Backed by Mastercard and Northwestern Mutual, Wellthi helps financial institutions drive engagement with younger consumers through social finance tools, group savings, and community-driven content. She sits on the FDIC’s advisory committee, holds a Howard University degree, and has been featured in Forbes and the American Banker. Gilliam didn’t just study financial inclusion abroad. She came home and built the software for it.

Born in Enugu, Nigeria, raised in London, and rooted in Maryland, Ifeoma Onyia opened Clyopatra Winery & Vineyard in October 2023, becoming the first African immigrant to own a winery in the United States and the only Black-owned vineyard in Maryland. What started on six acres in Laurel is expanding into what will be the largest Black-owned vineyard on the East Coast, with a village resort, factory, and second tasting room in development. She carries 18 curated wines in the portfolio, sources grapes from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and is building an agritourism destination that Prince George’s County leaders expect to draw international visitors. Onyia also founded MISO Medical Center, a CARF-accredited outpatient mental health clinic, the House of Clyopatra Foundation, and Capitol Fashion Week. Recipient of Biden’s Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and the Keeper of Heritage Award from Susan Taylor of ESSENCE. She lost three brothers in the years before opening, including one who shared the vineyard dream. She built it anyway.