RICE CEO Jay Bailey partners with JPMorgan Chase to close racial wealth gap in Atlanta

Successful communities are built from the ground up, and every neighborhood needs thriving businesses in order to succeed. An 8-year study published in early 2022 by Harvard Business Review, titled “How Entrepreneurship Can Revitalize Local Communities,” discussed what it takes to foster ventures that revive the economies in which they’re established. The authors summarized the study by stating, “The goal is to harness the power of entrepreneurship to revitalize impoverished places.” By growing slowly and becoming strongly embedded into the local economy, the study proposes investing in ventures that lift up their communities in order to achieve sustained self-reliance. The concept suggests helping entrepreneurs and business owners can be the foundation to communal prosperity.

In Atlanta, the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE) has become a cornerstone for Black people to receive tools and resources to help grow their businesses sustainably. The RICE center partnered with JPMorgan Chase – following the financial institution announcing its US$30 billion commitment to closing the racial wealth gap – to launch their community Chase Lounge, a beautifully designed space used to help Black business owners level the economic playing field in Atlanta and the surrounding areas.

Jay Bailey – an Atlanta native, University of Georgia graduate, and CEO of RICE – recently sat down with REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels on “The Blackprint” to discuss how the partnership with JPMorgan Chase has already made concrete changes in the lives and businesses of many RICE entrepreneurs. Available on REVOLT’s platforms, “The Blackprint” is a podcast show developed to highlight personalities of cultural significance who want to share details about their journeys with the next generation of business leaders, innovators, and creators.