A public relations expert and philanthropist shares stories from his relationship with Black entrepreneur Reginald Lewis.

“I have made a living by attaching myself to powerful people and found it to be a profitable pursuit,” writes Meily in the book’s opening lines. And while his close confidants as a public relations expert and entrepreneur include prime ministers and high-profile CEOs, no one is closer to his heart than Reginald Lewis, at one time the richest Black businessman in America, with whom the author worked for six years. Meily likens Lewis, the head of TLC Beatrice International Holdings (a billion-dollar company whose brands included Tropicana, Samsonite luggage, and Avis, among others) to the sun, “around whom all of us minor planets revolved.” Working closely with Lewis during the Reagan era of deregulation and corporate extravagance, the author’s account illuminates the life of one of the period’s most well-known, ostentatious, and aggressive businessmen. While private jets and corporate intrigue take center stage, the book also offers an intimate look at the personal side of one of the most successful Black entrepreneurs of all time. Meily paints Lewis as a man of “intensity” who was full of “rage” when things didn’t work out according to plan, but also as a man who had a softer side, as evidenced by his philanthropic work and support of Black higher education. Telling Lewis’ story, Meily also details his own personal pursuit of the American Dream as he recounts his early life in Manila and distinguished academic record at the University of Florida. (Like Lewis, a fellow Catholic, the author emphasizes the role of faith in guiding his own philanthropic work.) Written in an engaging style with a text that comes in at fewer than 200 total pages, the book provides a rare glimpse into the lives of racial minorities in a white-dominated corporate space. Including a wealth of photographs, this work evocatively captures the glitz and glamor of the Reagan years.

The personality of entrepreneur Reg Lewis leaps from the page in this memoir from his former confidant.