Robert Johnson was the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the first African American billionaire. He was born in 1946 in Mississippi and grew up in Illinois. He earned degrees from the University of Illinois and Princeton University. After seeing that black audiences were underserved on television, he convinced cable executives to fund BET, which launched in 1980. BET grew rapidly and Johnson sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 1998, making him the first black billionaire. He has since founded other successful companies targeting underserved markets.

1. Robert Johnson
•Founder of BET holdings inc
• First African American Billionaire
•CEO of the first black owned company
By Elvis Okumu

2. Background.
• Born in Hickory, Mississippi On April 8th 1946 to Archie and Edna
J ohnson.
• Was the 9th of 10 children and soon moved to Freeport Illinois when
he was young.

3. Education
• Schooled in Freeport Illinois
• Went to University of Illinois for undergrad graduated in 1968
• Earned masters Princeton for public administration

4. Path to success
• Landed a job as a lobbyist for the NCTA where he then saw that the
black audience was mainly neglected when it came to television
shows.
• Convinced Tom Wheeler, president of the NCTA to give him $15,000
John Malone president of tele-communications gave him $500,000.
• Johnson then while at a NCTA convention met Bob Rosecrans who
offered him a two hour slot on a cable TV satellite which proved to be
the final factor in the creation of BET. It was later launched in 1980

5. Making money make money
• He slowly began giving black writers actors and musicians a
place to display their talent.
• Through repeated expansions and success mostly due to
Johnson's business know how BET grew until it became one of
the largest black owned companies to date.
• Johnson then with the earnings from BET around 72 million at
the stock exchange, he bought back shares from investors and
in 1998 he sold his company to Viacom for 3 billion dollars
pocketing 1.3 billion himself.

6. Continued success
• Using the money from his selling of BET Johnson has founded
the RLJ companies.
• Main goals include to create a premier holding company and
asset management firm run by a minority businessperson.
• to target undiscovered or underserved markets; then exercise
solid management to achieve results, the companies dabbling
in many fields such as real-estate automotive, gaming
industries is estimated to be 4 billion dollars.

7. "Robert L. Johnson: A Business Titan Redefining Black Entrepreneurial Success." THE BLACK COLLEGIAN
Online: The Career Site for African-American College Students. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. <http://www.black-
collegian.com/issues/1stsem00/titan2000-1st.shtml>.
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"Stories of Entrepreneurs: Robert L. Johnson." Entrepreneurship Resource. Web. 01 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.zeromillion.com/entrepreneurship/stories/robert-johnson.html>.