Robert L. Johnson, founder and chairman of business network The RLJ Companies and founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), will be the featured speaker at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce's 151st annual meeting on Friday, Nov. 18.
The meeting will be held from 11:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the Statehouse Convention Center's Governor's Hall IV. Tickets are $75, or $750 for a table.
Johnson has been named one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years" by USA Today.
RLJ Entertainment, formed in 2012, is the third company that has become publicly traded under his watch. BET went public in 1991 and was the first African American company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The third company, a $2 billion market cap hotel REIT called RLJ Lodging Trust, went public in 2011.
Johnson sold BET to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion and was CEO through 2006.
Three of his holding companies were also featured on the Black Enterprise 100s list in 2014. They were RML Automotive, RLJ Equity Partners and RLJ Credit Management.
Johnson serves on several boards. He has a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a bachelor's degree in social studies from the University of Illinois.
For more information on tickets and tables, contact Susan Miller at (501) 377-6040 or smiller@littlerockchamber.com , or visit the chamber's website.