Latimer Williams

Bio from Omar Wasow’s Blog

Omar Wasow, 37, is pursuing a doctorate in African American studies and political science at Harvard. In addition to his graduate work, Omar is the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com and an on-air technology analyst. Under Omar’s leadership BlackPlanet.com became the leading site for African Americans, reaching over three million people a month. As a strategic advisor to Community Connect Inc., the parent company of BlackPlanet.com, he continues to work closely with senior management to guide the long-term direction and profitability of the company. Omar also works to demystify technology issues through regular TV and radio segments on NBC’s Today Show, CNN’s American Morning and public radio’s Tavis Smiley Show. Similarly, Omar tutored Oprah Winfrey in her first exploration of the Net in the 12-part series ‘Oprah Goes Online’.

Omar’s success as a credible and friendly guide to the Internet led Newsweek to name him one of the “fifty most influential people to watch in cyberspace,” and People magazine to call him the “Sexiest Internet Executive.” Successful Meetings Magazine named him one of the “21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century.”

As a result of his active participation in a number of social issues, particularly the charter school movement, Omar was selected to be a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership program. In recognition of the promise of his academic research, the National Science Foundation selected him for a Graduate Research Fellowship. In Fall 2003, a K-8 charter school that Omar helped found opened in his hometown of Brooklyn. He received his BA in Race and Ethnic Relations from Stanford University. He can be reached at omar (at) mail.blackplanet.com.

By Latimer Williams

Originally posted on 8/13/07

Well he did again, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship to make it his 13th PGA major’s title. Tiger is only 5 wins away from catching the record of 18 PGA major wins held by golfing great Jack Nicklaus. Even now it’s just hard to imaging how dominating Tiger Woods has been since he turned pro. Keep this in mind it took Jack Nicklaus 53 tournaments to get to 13 major titles, it has taken Tiger Woods only 44 tournaments. His father certainly taught him well and he is the new gold standard by which all other professional golfers are judged…black or white. That is certainly from even 20 years ago where you hardly ever saw an black face on TV when it came to Golf, it doesn’t mean they were not there in the ranks , you just didn’t see them on TV. Let’s name a few black pioneers of golf that you may have never heard of before now:

• 
  Dr. George F. Grant - Dr. Grant has 2 great accomplishments, he is the first black man to graduate for Harvard College to become a dentist. The reason he is on this list is because Dr Grant invented the Golf tee and was smart enough to get a patent for it in 1899.
• 
  Charlie Sifford - The first black man to play on the PGA tour and the first black man to win a PGA event, the Greater Hartford Open in 1967.He also won the 1969 Los Angeles Open, the Long Beach
  Open, the Puerto Rico Open and the Sea Pines Open. In 1975 he won the PGA Senior Championship. He was inducted in to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1980.
• 
  Lee Elder - Lee Elder joined the PGA tour in 1967 and become the first african-american to qualify for the Masters in the Augusta,GA.He also won the Houston Open, Greater
  Milwaukee Open and the American Express Westchester Classic.
• 
  Calvin Peete - Calvin Peete was the original african-american face of golf before Tiger Woods. He
  turned pro in 1971, leading the PGA Tour in accuracy for 10 consecutive
  years. He played on the Ryder Cup teams in 1983 and 1985 and earned
  $2,302,363 on the tour.
• 
  Renee Powell - Powell competed as a
  collegiate at Ohio State University. She is also one of the few African
  American women to compete on the LPGA Tour. In 1979, she
  became the first woman to serve as head professional in the United
  Kingdom.

These are just a handful of many black people who have had a hand in the evolution of the Tiger Woods franchise. As great as Tiger Woods presence is in golf today, he is the only black person on the PGA tour. We have to encourage our kids to seek out all channels to be successful. Visit the The African-American Golf Digest and pass it along to everyone especially our kids so they can see it’s not just Tiger Woods playing golf, maybe they will become inspired!

John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Symantec Corporation. Under Thompson’s leadership, Symantec has grown from a small consumer software publisher to the market leader for security and availability solutions to help customers manage their rapidly growing digital assets.Recognizing the growing importance of information and the need to protect it, Thompson and his team have made a number of strategic acquisitions to expand the company’s ability to help consumers and businesses secure and manage their growing dependence on online, real-time information. With global operations in more than 40 countries, the company is viewed as a strategic partner to its customers, providing a broad range of security, storage, availability, and performance management solutions to help them proactively manage their IT infrastructure.

In September 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Thompson to the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NIAC), to make recommendations regarding the security of the critical infrastructure of the United States. In addition, Thompson has served as the chair of the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security and Technology to identify and evaluate technology-driven solutions to improve the security and efficiency of national and local aviation.

Prior to joining Symantec, Thompson had a distinguished career with the IBM Corporation where he held senior executive positions in sales, marketing and software development. In his last assignment, he was general manager of IBM Americas and a member of the company’s Worldwide Management Council.

Thompson is a member of the board of directors of UPS and Seagate. He completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master’s degree in management science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Al Zollar became general manager, Tivoli software, in July 2004. He is responsible for the strategic direction and ongoing operations for the Tivoli software brand, which enables on demand computing environments by providing customers the ability to manage resources and risks, optimize human capital and manage service levels and business processes. Tivoli offers solutions in six key service areas: Availability, Security, Storage and Optimization, Orchestration, Business Service Management and Provisioning. Previously, Al was general manager, eServer iSeries, where he was responsible for the executive leadership of the iSeries server product line and for leading the strategy and plans for IBM servers and storage in the Global Small and Medium Business marketplace.

Since joining IBM in 1977 as a systems engineer trainee in San Francisco, Al has held several high-level positions within the company, including senior management positions in every IBM Software Group division. Before joining eServer iSeries, Al served as general manager of Lotus, responsible for leading its innovative development of messaging, collaboration and knowledge management software. Prior to that, he served as general manager of IBM’s Network Computing Software Division, responsible for key internet infrastructure technologies, including networking, directory, security and Java technologies. He’s also served as general manager of IBM networking software, vice president of development for IBM Tivoli, and has held numerous key management positions in IBM software development laboratories, including lab director for Software Group in Raleigh, NC, and DB2 Product Manager, Santa Teresa, CA.

Al is a board member of the Chubb Corporation. Additionally, Al is an advocate and supporter of business and community-based organizations aimed at expanding opportunities for minorities. He is a board member of the Executive Leadership Council and a co-chair of the IBM Black Family Technology Awareness project. He was named one of the 100 most influential Blacks in America by Savoy magazine in 2003 and one of the 50 most important African-Americans in technology by US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine in 2004.

Al holds a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego. He spends his free time with his family, reading, playing golf and listening to jazz.

After his doctorate, Dr. Monroe became appointed (1974) Associate Professor of Computer Science at the United States Air Force Academy. From 1978-1987, James Monroe held various positions at the United States Air Force Academy, Dean of the Faculty, Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Chair of the Computer Science Department. From 1987 to 1991, he held administrative positions at Fayetteville State University and in The University of North Carolina General Administration. Since 1991, Dr. Monroe has held the McNair Endowed Chair and Professor at NCAT.