Richmond Free Press
May 10-12, 2007

South Africa on Her Mind

By Don Dale

Lillian Lincoln Lambert has been working on her memoir. But she's going to take a break with her husband Johnny this fall to attend the 2007 Soweto Wine and Brandy Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The September trip is a gift of appreciation from Heritage Links Brands, an American company that imports wines from black-owned vineyards in Africa. In a tribute to Ms. Lambert, one of the company's co-founders, Selene Cuffe, said, "I am profoundly grateful for the path you paved," giving inspiration to others.

The path that Mrs. Lambert paved runs from the segregated South to Harvard University to business success in the nation's capital city.

She grew up on a farm near Richmond in a house that didn't have electricity until she was 8. Education was important in her family, but money was tight. So, as a high school graduate, she moved to New York City and worked as a maid and a typist. Then she moved to Washington, D.C., where she got a government job. Her determination paid off.

She went to Howard University with help from a scholarship, and in 1969 she became the first black woman to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. She started a building services company in her Maryland garage. By the time she sold it in 2001, annual revenues were at $20 million. She had 1,200 employees and her client list included ABC News and Dulles Airport, she said.

She also co-founded a group to recruit African-American students for the Harvard Business School.

Mrs. Lambert, who now lives in Mechanicsville, says she is a wine aficionado and "can't wait to visit South Africa's black owned vineyard and taste the fruit of their work." While she and Mr. Lambert are there, she will speak to the South African Black Vintners Alliance about the importance of corporate coalitions. She and her husband are retired. They often vacation in Florida.

Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa's population but own just 1.5 of the country's $3 billion wine industry. Heritage Link Brands imports products from the South African Black Vintners Alliance into the U.S.

"I am impressed with the growth in the number of African-Americans at top-tier business schools like Harvard over the last 40 years and the increasing power of blacks in businesses of all kinds worldwide," Mrs. Lambert said.