Biography
Dr.
Randal Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur,
speaker, author, scholar and community servant. He is
the co-founder, chairman
and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar management,
technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark,
NJ. BCT Partners works
with corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations
in the areas of housing and community development, economic
development, human services, government,
healthcare and education. A partial list
of BCT's clients includes: Johnson & Johnson, Ford
Foundation, Pfizer, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, Hewlett-Packard, Annie E. Casey Foundation
and Microsoft.
Prior to
founding BCT Partners, Dr. Pinkett obtained corporate
experience as a Member of Technical Staff at General Electric,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
and Lucent Technologies. A "serial entrepreneur",
he also previously launched four socially responsible
business ventures. First, Dr. Pinkett co-founded MBS Enterprises,
selling compact discs and cassette tapes
out of his dormitory in college and using the proceeds
to fund high school outreach activities. MBS later evolved
into his second venture,
MBS Educational Services & Training, a firm committed to providing
the highest caliber training and development for emerging
and seasoned professionals. MBS's past clients include
General Motors, the United
Negro College Fund, Exxon, National Action Council for
Minorities in Engineering (NACME), Merck & Company, Thurgood Marshall
Scholarship Fund, Johnson & Johnson, PNC Bank, Citigroup and Corning
Incorporated. Third, Dr. Pinkett co-founded the Inner
City Consulting Group, a multi-disciplinary consulting
firm that specialized in the
unique needs of inner city
communities. Fourth, in affiliation with One Economy,
Dr. Pinkett co-founded Access One Corporation, with a
mission to ensure that affordable
housing was equipped for the 21st century by implementing
innovative, sustainable, broadband network and telecommunications
solutions. BCT
Partners represents his fifth and latest business venture,
whereas across all five of his companies and to this day,
Dr. Pinkett has
maintained a relationship as business partners with his
close friends and college classmates, Mr. Lawrence Hibbert,
BCT's Chief President; Mr. Dallas Grundy, former BCT Chief Operating
Officer; and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Chair of BCT's Advisory
Board and Professor
at New York University (NYU).
A sought
after public speaker for corporate, youth and community
groups, Dr. Pinkett has been featured on nationally televised programs such as The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, and CNN, as well as featured in Parade magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He was the Season 4 Winner of NBC's hit reality television The Apprentice with Donald Trump. He served as an executive with Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, NJ, where he was responsible for overseeing both renovation and information technology projects. He has re-appeared on The Apprentice as a boardroom advisor and is a regular segment host for CEO EXCHANGE on PBS. He is a Leadership New Jersey (LNJ) Fellow, a Next Generation Leadership (NGL) Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, and is a recipient of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Fellowship, Lucent Technologies Cooperative Research Fellowship Program (CRFP), University of Oxford Graduate Scholarship, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) National Member of the Year, Top 20 Scholars by USA TODAY newspaper, NCAA Academic All-American, NCAA Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship, New Jersey Martin Luther King Commemorative Commission Triumph Award, and the MIT Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, from among a host of other recognitions and accolades. He is a proud brand ambassador for Verizon Communications, Outback Steakhouse, and the Miller Urban Entreprenuers Series.
Dr. Pinkett
holds five academic degrees including the following: Bachelor of Science
(B.S.) in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in New Brunswick,
NJ, that he completed with a 3.9 GPA while serving as President of
MEET, the Rutgers Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers
(NSBE) and Captain of the Rutgers University Varsity Men's Track and
Field team competing as a high jumper and long jumper; Master of Science
(M.Sc.) in Computer Science from Oxford University, England as a Rhodes
Scholar; Master of Science (S.M.) in Electrical Engineering from the
MIT School of Engineering and Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a participant in the MIT
Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program; and Doctor of Philosophy
(Ph.D.) from the MIT Media Laboratory. Most notably, Dr. Pinkett made
history as the first African-American ever to receive a Rhodes Scholarship
at Rutgers University.
A published
writer and academic scholar, Dr. Pinkett's first book, Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business, was released in February 2007. That same year he also released the audio book, The No-Money Down CEO: How to Start Your Dream Business with Little or No Cash. In addition to more than
20 papers and articles Dr. Pinkett has authored chapters in five
books including: Managing
IT/Community Partnerships in the 21st Century; Journey to
the Ph.D.: How to Navigate the Process as African-Americans; Community
Practice in the Network Society: Local Action/Global Interaction; The Network Society: A Cross-cultural Perspective; and Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations. His
master's thesis at the University of Oxford was entitled, "Hardware/Software
Co-Design and Digital Speech Processing". His master's thesis
at MIT was entitled, "Product Development Process Modeling and
Analysis of Digital Wireless Telephones." His doctoral dissertation
at MIT was entitled, "Creating Community Connections: Sociocultural
Constructionism and an Asset-Based Approach to Community
Technology and Community Building." Lastly, he is currently co-authoring
a book with his Rutgers roommate and business partner,
Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, tentatively
entitled, Black
Faces in White Places, which chronicles their experiences as
African Americans who have successfully navigagted predominantly white
institutions.
Dr. Pinkett
maintains an active involvement in community service. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, the Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). He is a national spokesperson for Autism Speaks, the National Black MBA Association (Gold Key Access events), New Jersey Reads ("Change a Life Through Literacy" campaign) and Junior Achievement of New York (Groundhog Job Shadow Day program). BCT Partners does considerable work with community-based
organizations; his doctoral dissertation at MIT examined the role
of high technology in improving the quality of life for low-income
residents. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the New
Jersey Public Policy Research Institute (NJPPRI), the Nonprofit Technology
Enterprise Network (N-TEN) and the Institute for Innovation in Government
Technology (IIGT) and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Community
Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet).
Born in
Philadelphia, PA, as the son of the Late Leslie Pinkett
and Elizabeth Pinkett, and raised in East Windsor, NJ,
along with his brother, Dan,
a manager at Prudential Insurance Company, he currently
resides in Somerset, NJ, where he is happily married to
Zahara Wadud-Pinkett, a Senior Alumni Relations Officer
at Rutgers, The State
University
of New Jersey. They are both proud parents of their daughter, Amira Leslie. Dr. Pinkett is an active member of First Baptist Church
of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, NJ, and firmly believes
that "for those to whom much
is given, much is expected."