Take a Lesson, 2nd Edition

12Tom Jones

Senior Partner, TWJ Capital LLC

It is well established that a paltry few Black women and men have reached the top rungs of the corporate world. They are so few that those who've paid close enough attention over the last 35 years probably know their names by heart.

Yet those rare few who came close—achieving ancillary C‐suite titles, amassing millions in personal wealth, and the vaulted status and notoriety that goes with them—often end up as obscure footnotes in history, even though theirs can be among the most interesting, and instructive, stories to tell. Tom Jones has such a story.

Like many of today's young activists, Jones first grabbed headlines in college when he led a group of armed students in occupying Cornell University's Willard Straight Hall for 36 hours, demanding a Black studies curriculum. It was 1969.

Despite the protest's peaceful resolution, no one would have imagined Jones going on to succeed in corporate America—least of all Jones himself. In fact, he rose to within a stone's throw of the chairmanship of TIAA before leaving for a bigger, bolder play: the possibility of running all of Citigroup. His chosen career path led some of his Cornell peers and successors to accuse him of leveraging his revolutionary moment to ultimately sell out.

Jones got as far as chairman and CEO of Global Investment Management at Citi before being ousted in the ...