The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation will honor Eugene A. Profit, CEO of Profit Investment Management, at its fourth annual Gala Luncheon on Saturday, June 25, at the Lewis Estate in East Hampton. Harvard Law School Bussey Professor Emeritus Frank E. A. Sander will receive the Millennium Member Award recognizing the key role he played in Lewis’s career. The event will feature the musical stylings of celebrity spinner
DJ M.O.S. For the third consecutive year, CBS2 News Anchor Maurice DuBois will emcee the benefit.

Each year, the Foundation bestows the Reginald F. Lewis Award to an African-American entrepreneur who achieved international business success before the age of 50, as Lewis did. Lewis led the largest leveraged buyout of the 1980s to become the first African American to build a billion-dollar company.

“Reginald F. Lewis was the Jackie Robinson of the finance world, breaking into the highly selective world of high finance,” said Lewis’s widow Loida Nicolas Lewis, legendary chair of the occasion. “His accomplishments should be a page in the financial history books of the United States.”

“We are thrilled this year to honor Eugene Profit, whose achievements bring the legacy of Reginald F. Lewis into the 21st century,” said event Chair Leslie Lewis Sword, Lewis’s daughter and foundation board member. “Eugene joins an elite group of African American achievers on Wall Street and in business that the Foundation has helped showcase to the world through this award.”

A former NFL player with the New England Patriots and Washington Redskins, Profit started Profit Investment Management with $100,000 and has since grown the company to an impressive $2 billion in assets under management. He has been the subject of numerous profiles in financial media, including CNBC, Business Week, Smart Money, Black Enterprise, Pension & Investments, and Investors Business Daily. Active in the community, Profit started the Profit Charitable Foundation Fund, which helps minority students pay for university expenses and assists with various community causes. The Yale University graduate also advocates for financial literacy through internship programs and workshops informing African Americans about the benefits of
long-term investing.

“Reginald F. Lewis was an inspiration to me as I started my entrepreneurial life and provided an example of the possibilities
I could achieve,” said Profit. “I am deeply honored to be chosen for this award and to follow in the footsteps of a man who, in addition to being a great businessman, was equally dedicated in his philanthropic work for others and to his family.”

Millennium Member Awardee Sander was the Harvard Law School professor who, in 1965, was one of several faculty members who taught a summer law program for students from historically black colleges and universities (HSBCs), attended by Lewis. Upon observing the 21-year-old’s stellar performance, Sander was instrumental in persuading the director of admissions of the law school to admit Lewis even though he had not filed an application for admission or taken the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).

Tickets are $550 for the 12:30 pm fundraiser, which is produced by Sharon Lopez of Purple Giraffe Productions, with event and floral design by Jerry Sibal Design Fusion. To attend or sponsor the benefit, please visit www.reginaldflewis.com.