Robert L. Johnson
| Robert L. Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Robert Louis Johnson April 8, 1946 Hickory, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BA) Princeton University (MPA) |
| Known for | Founder of BET |
| Net worth | US$ 3 Billion |
| Website | Official website |
Robert Louis "Bob" Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an African American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist and investor. He is the founder of BET, which was sold to Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in various business sectors. Johnson is the former majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. He became the first black American billionaire. Johnson's companies have counted among the most prominent African-American businesses in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Johnson was born in 1946 in Hickory, Mississippi, the Tenth out of Seventeen children to Edna and Archie Johnson. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father a farmer. His parents moved the family to Freeport, Illinois when he was a child. He attended High School, where he was an honors student. Johnson graduated from the University of Illinois in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in social studies. While at the University of Illinois, Johnson was a member of the Beta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He received a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1972.
After graduating Princeton he found a job in Washington, D.C. that introduced him to the television industry. He served as the public affairs director for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this position is where he learned of the power and untapped potential of television. Around the same time he also worked as the director of communications for the Washington, D.C. office of the National Urban League. Johnson worked as a press secretary for Congressman Walter E. Fauntroy. He later became vice president of government relations at the National Cable and Television Association. In 1980, Johnson launched Black Entertainment Television.
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