Each year the African-American Student Union (AASU), Harvard Business School African-American Alumni Association (HBSAAA), and Bert King Foundation join together to honor HBS alumni for their achievements, leadership, and personal integrity. This year's recipients, Little League Board chairman Dwight Raiford and HBO Video president Henry McGee, received their awards at the annual H. Naylor Fitzhugh Conference on February 21.
Bert King Award for Service to the Community
W. Dwight Raiford
Chairman, Little League Baseball International Board of Directors
In 2001, New York City's Dwight Raiford became the first African-American to be elected chairman of the Little League Baseball International Board of Directors in the sixty-two-year history of the program. In 1989, Raiford founded New York City's Harlem Little League with his wife, Iris, and has been a strong supporter of Little League Baseball's Urban Initiative. Mr. Raiford, who was first elected to the board in 1994, works as an independent consultant in New York.
The Harlem Little League team created a tremendous sense of excitement that ignited the hearts and imagination of New Yorkers in 2002 when it reached the United States semifinals of the Little League World Series after completing pool play with a 2-1 record. The Harlem Little League All-Star team was the fourth team from New York to make it to the Little League World Series.
Growing up in a North Carolina mill town, W. Dwight Raiford learned from his father, an insurance agent, that a black man can be successful in business and from his uncle, a janitor, to "be of service to others." Both ideals have guided him through his fifty years, but only recently have they truly come together.
"My life is finally aligned," says Raiford with a warm smile and easy laugh. After a successful career in finance—including twenty years at Citibank—he is now using his business skills to help his Harlem neighbors manage their business and personal finances. The catalyst for his second career was the intense satisfaction he encountered when he and his wife founded the Harlem Little League.
Starting the league meant finding fields, getting kids and parents interested, and raising money to support the teams. "If we had known what it would take, we never would have done it," says Raiford. "But I'm glad we did." Seven hundred kids currently play in the league, and several others have received college scholarships. A team of league all-stars took sixth place in the 2002 Little League World Series.
Raiford, who chairs the national Little League board of directors, stresses, "building big-league citizens, not big-league ballplayers." But winning has its thrills, such as being invited to Wall Street with the team last year. Says Raiford, "After twenty-five years in financial services, how do I get to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange? Baseball."
Raiford is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School.
Professional Achievement Award
Henry McGee
President, HBO Video
Henry McGee was named president of HBO Video, in March 1995. He is responsible for the management of Home Box Office's DVD and video marketing division. The company's extensive catalog includes hundreds of titles ranging from HBO's critically acclaimed and groundbreaking series The Sopranos and Sex and the City to theatrical features such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the most successful independent film in history.
The company also distributes a significant line of celebrated British television programming including the Emmy-award winning documentary series The World at War and Rumpole of the Bailey.
Under McGee's direction the company was one of the first in the video industry to use the Internet to expand its marketing campaign beyond traditional vehicles. In 1995 HBO launched its first Web site, hbohomevideo.com, and in 1998 added hbodvd.com to market its releases in the DVD format.
In 2003 McGee initiated an expansion of the division's international activities with the start up of an HBO Video label in the United Kingdom.
McGee is president of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation, the nation's largest modern dance organization, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer of the annual New York Film Festival. He serves on the board of the Sundance Institute and is a member of the executive committee of the Black Filmmaker Foundation. McGee is also a director of the AOL Time Warner Foundation.
In October 1990, McGee was appointed by the governor of New York to the board of The New 42nd Street, the organization overseeing the revitalization and management of seven historic theaters in Times Square.
In the past, McGee has served as a trustee of Radcliffe College, a member of the Communications Advisory Council of the National Audubon Society, and a member of the board of directors of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
McGee is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 1997 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Minorities in Communications. In 1998 he was named one of New York's top 100 minority executives by Crain's New York Business. That same year he was also elected a fellow of England's RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce). In 1999, McGee was named Industry Career Achiever by the American Advertising Federation (District 2) at its annual Diversity Achievement Awards Program. In May 2002, McGee received the "Industry Giant" award from the Vision Fund of America and in December of that year Black Enterprise magazine named McGee one of the fifty most powerful African Americans in the entertainment industry.
He is a member of several professional associations including the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
McGee joined HBO in July 1979 as manager of film acquisitions. A year later, he transferred to the company's sister division, Time-Life Television, where he was promoted to director and placed in charge of acquiring foreign and domestic television distribution rights to theatrical features, series, and movies-of-the-week. In 1981, he returned to HBO to oversee program budgeting and planning for the company's newly launched Cinemax service.
In 1982, he was given the additional assignment of managing HBO's Family Programming department. In October 1983, McGee became director of HBO Enterprises, responsible for international co-productions and new business planning and was involved in the start-up of Thorn EMI/HBO Video (now HBO Video). He was named vice president of home video, in July 1985 and was promoted to senior vice president, programming, HBO Home Video in March 1988.
Before joining HBO, McGee worked for three years as a reporter for Newsweek in its New York and Washington, DC bureaus. He covered stories in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, education, and entertainment and also served as an on-camera reporter for Newsweek Broadcasting.
McGee has a BA from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He and his wife Celia, a journalist, live in Manhattan with their daughter.