​UNCF New England “A Mind Is…” Reception – Boston

Ron Walker serves as Chief Operating Officer at Rasky Partners, one of the largest and most respected independent public relations and public affairs firms in the U.S., where he plays a key role in operations, finances, and strategic growth.

Walker is a nationally recognized business leader and workforce development expert for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with extensive public and private expertise in corporate strategy, government, banking, customer acquisition, executive level management, business integration, and strategic planning. With a successful career as an executive level banker and strategic consultant to companies and entrepreneurs, he brings a wealth of experience in economic development, finance, and innovative strategies to Rasky Partners.

Prior to joining Rasky Partners, Walker was appointed in 2015 by Governor Charlie Baker as Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Under his leadership as Secretary, the administration made significant improvements in the development of the Commonwealth’s labor force. Walker fostered a focus on regional strategies to address workforce development and economic growth, which resulted in the largest Massachusetts labor force since 1976, and a historic low of the unemployment rate of 2.8%, at times.

Additionally, during his tenure, Secretary Walker oversaw five workforce agencies, chaired the

Commonwealth Corporation placed a strong emphasis on labor standards, unemployment assistance, and workers compensation programs, and the Department of Industrial Accidents, among other duties.

He also chaired the Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet and the state workforce board.

Prior to his appointment, Walker was co-founder and President of Next Street Financial, LLC, a merchant bank that provides strategic advice and access to capital to companies and entrepreneurs nationally. He has held several corporate executive positions in large financial institutions including leading the bank’s advisory board. Additionally, Walker has been involved in monumental business deals including a recent $400 million real estate deal in Boston Massachusetts. This is one of the first major real estate deals with a state agency in Massachusetts that required minority investment partners.

A Mattapan, Massachusetts native, Walker holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from Prairie View A&M University. He also completed two Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School; Finance for Senior Executives and Governing for Nonprofit Excellence. Mr. Walker has received numerous awards for his business and community leadership, such as the 2019 UNFC New England 75th Anniversary Leadership Award, the 2013 Boston Business Journal CEO of the Year Award, and the 2012 Central Boston Elder Services Community Service award to name a few.

Mr. Walker recently gave the 2019 Founders Day and Honors Convocation speech at Prairie View A&M University. He was also appointed by the President as Chair of the President’s Advisory Council.

Fletcher “Flash” Wiley, Esq. has worked for more than two decades as a practicing attorney concentrating in the areas of corporate and commercial law, small business development, entertainment law, and real estate. In 1996, Mr. Wiley resigned as a Senior Partner with the Boston Law firm of Goldstein & Manello, P.C. to join PRWT Services, Inc. as a principal of the company and its Executive Vice President and General Counsel. In 2008, Mr. Wiley retired from employment with PRWT after playing a key role in building it into one of the nation’s largest minority-owned businesses and Black Enterprise Magazine’s 2009 “Company of the Year”.

Wiley has served as a Director of several for-profit business organizations, including three public companies. He recently retired after two decades as a Director of The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE). He is also “Of Counsel” to Bingham McCutchen LLP, one of the nation’s largest law firms, where he specializes in corporate and commercial law. Additionally, as Chairman and CEO of The Centaurus Group, LLC, Mr. Wiley is an investor and principal in several commercial, real estate development, and management consulting ventures.

Wiley is a benefactor of Crispus Attucks Children’s Center, Inc.; a founding member of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School Black Alumni Organizations; a former Director of the New England Legal Foundation; Overseer of the New England Region Anti-Defamation League; and Chairman of the Board of The Dimock Center, Inc. He is also the recipient of numerous civic and professional awards, including induction in 2010 into the GBCC’s “Academy of Distinguished Bostonians”.

Wiley graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1965, and continued his studies as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, France at L’Institut Des Etudes Politiques. Following service as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Wiley received his Masters in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and his law degree from Harvard Law School. Mr. Wiley is a member of the Bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and District of Columbia, and belongs to the American, National, and Massachusetts Bar Associations.

Benaree Pratt Wiley (Bennie) is Principal of The Wiley Group.  For fifteen years, Bennie was the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Partnership, Inc., an organization that strengthened Greater Boston’s capacity to attract, retain, and develop talented professionals of color.

Bennie’s experiences as a management consultant and entrepreneur were instrumental to building The Partnership into a sustainable and influential social enterprise. A graduate of Howard University (BA) and Harvard Business School (MBA), she served as a consultant with such corporations as Abt Associates, Contract Research Corporation, and Urban Systems Research and Engineering. As an independent consultant, she worked with non-profit organizations to build their capacity and refine their program delivery. She then combined her interests in business and child development through the establishment of a high-end toy store, Giocatolli, on Martha’s Vineyard.

Bennie is currently a Director on boards of the Dreyfus Mutual Funds, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and CBIZ (NYSE). She has served as the Chair of PepsiCo’s African American Advisory Board, and formerly served on the board of First Albany (NASDAQ). Her civic activities include serving on the boards of Dress for Success Boston, Partners Continuing Care, the Black Philanthropy Fund, the Efficacy Institute and Howard University where she serves as Vice Chair.

She is a frequent speaker on leadership, diversity and professional development and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including Honorary Doctorates from Boston College, New England School of Law and Newbury College; induction into Academy of Distinguished Bostonians; Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement; and Harvard Business School Distinguished Alumni Award from the African American Student Union.

Bennie also had the honor of being featured on the cover of Boston magazine as one of Boston’s most powerful women; and being the subject of a Harvard Business School case, Bennie Wiley and The Partnership.

Frederick L. Brown was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He received a B.A., cum laude, from Harvard College in 1954.  After serving in the United States Army for ten years, he entered Harvard Law School, where he received his LL.B. in 1967.  From 1967 to 1969 he served as chief law clerk to the justices of the Superior Court.  He then served as legal counsel to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.  Subsequently, Judge Brown began private practice in Boston, specializing in Federal criminal, constitutional, and civil rights matters. He was then appointed to serve as regional counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.  In 1973 he joined the faculty of Northeastern University School of Law where he taught Federal jurisdiction, corporations, securities law, and constitutional and civil rights litigation.

In 1976, Governor Michael Dukakis appointed him to the Appeals Court, making him the Commonwealth of Massachusetts first African-American appellate judge.  Justice Brown had one of the longest service on the appellate court spanning 39 years until August 2015.

Brown was a prolific jurist, authoring more opinions than any appellate judge in recent history. He has written many articles in law reviews and other legal journals.

Throughout his career, Justice Brown has been a driving force in many educational and philanthropic activities.  He has had numerous clerks at the Appeals Court and serves as a mentor to many of Boston’s prominent lawyers.  In 1977 Justice Brown was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Northeastern University and in 1995 as a trustee of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  He provided unparalleled leadership with the Lena Park Community Development Corporation as a Director, Housing Division Chairman, and Chairman of the Board.  In addition to numerous judicial awards, Brown was an Alvin Brown Fellow at the Aspen Institute in 1977 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from New England School of Law in 1989. He was also a founding member of the Lawyers for Civil Rights in Massachusetts.