Ford, Wallace L., II 1950- (Wallace Leonard Ford, II)

PERSONAL:

Born January 13, 1950, in New York, NY; son of Wallace and Carmen Ford; divorced; married Rikki E. Langston, May 2, 1981. Education: Dartmouth College, B.A., 1970; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, 420 W. 118th St., New York, NY 10027. E-mail—wlf14@columbia.edu.

CAREER:

Writer, attorney, educator, entrepreneur, consultant, investment banker, and government official. Fordworks Associates, Inc. (a management consulting and advisory firm), principal and founder. City of New York, department of ports and trade, commissioner, 1990—. Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, adjunct professor of international and public affairs; Metropolitan College of New York, School of Business, instructor. New York State Supreme Court, law secretary; New York State Assembly Committee on Banking, counsel; New York State Department of Commerce, Division of Minority Business Development, deputy commissioner; State of New York Mortgage Agency, executive officer and chief executive officer. Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc., first vice president; Amistad DOT Venture Capital Inc., executive vice president and general counsel; Kaye Scholer law firm, attorney. Member of board of trustees, Malcolm King College; member of board of advisors, United Way International; member of board of directors, Haitel, S.A.; member of board of directors, Gridline Communications Holdings, Inc; member of board of advisors, Columbia University, Center for Jazz Studies.

MEMBER:

National Association of Securities Professionals, New York Urban League (Harlem Branch; member of board of directors), Harlem Lawyers Association (former president).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Ebony magazine 100 Leaders of the Future distinction, 1978; Time magazine Fifty Faces of the Future distinction, 1978; National Housing Conference annual award, 1984.

WRITINGS:

The Pride (novel), Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2005.

What You Sow (novel), Dafina Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Columnist, Turning Point magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, novelist, and educator Wallace L. Ford, II, has had a wide-ranging career in law, government, and business. He is the founder and owner of Fordworks, a management consulting firm. He has been an investment banker, a government official in a number of New York city and state offices, a practicing attorney, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Ford is also the author of two novels, The Pride and its sequel, What You Sow. In The Pride, Ford tells the story of four members of an elite group of African American business owners and entrepreneurs, known collectively as The Pride. While attending the funeral of a fellow Pride member, lawyer and business owner Paul Taylor has a clear vision of his and his friends' future. Though they are all successful in their way, they still have less access to capital and less chance to leverage their assets into substantial gains. To overcome this limitation, he suggests to three friends that they combine their companies into one large, black-owned investment bank. Invited to participate are Dierdre Douglas, Paul's ex-wife and owner of DBD Financial Advisors; Jerome Hardaway, owner of investment firm Hardaway Group THG; and Gordon Stallworth Perkins, owner and CEO of G.S. Perkins and Partners, LLP. As the partners move forward with their plans to create Morningstar Financial Services, ambition, greed, competitiveness, and distrust abound, threatening their friendships and business associations. "The dealings and maneuvering of each player are told with intrigue and suspense," commented Lillian Lewis in Booklist.

In What You Sow, Gordon Perkins and his partner Ray Beard have double-crossed their partners from the Pride. The pair get their comeuppance, however, when their alcohol and drug abuse leaves Ray half-blind and Gordon in a deep coma. To save their company from the damage inflicted by Perkins and Beard, Paul Taylor, Dierdre Douglas, and Jerome Hardaway merge their powers and assets. Even while languishing in a coma, however, Gordon plots his comeback and his even more diabolical plans to take advantage of his one-time friends and business partners. When a greedy preacher named Quincy Holloway shows up with a camera crew, life for the Morningstar partners gets even more complicated. Fans of The Pride "will love this latest installment in life among the African American power elite," commented Booklist reviewer Vanessa Bush.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, January-February, 2006, Dana Crum, review of The Pride, p. 60.

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Lillian Lewis, review of The Pride, p. 54; November 1, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of What You Sow, p. 29.

Publishers Weekly, September 25, 2006, review of What You Sow, p. 46.

ONLINE

Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs Web site,http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/ (December 20, 2006), biography of Wallace L. Ford, II.