Barbara Gardner Proctor

Barbara Gardner Proctor (born 1933) was the first black woman to own and operate an advertising agency.[1] She worked for the Veejay Records Company, and eventually became director of its International Division.[1] In 1964 she was hired by the Post-Keyes-Gardner Agency, where she began using her married name Proctor so as to not share a name with one of the agency partners.[2] She won 21 awards in three years at that agency.[2] In 1969 she worked at Gene Taylor Associates as a copy supervisor, and later that year worked at North in a similar position.[2] But she thought that at North she was limited to dealing with beauty and household products, and that the company focused on pleasing the customer rather than selling the product.[2] Therefore she began her own advertising agency in 1970, called Proctor and Gardner Advertising, Inc.[2] In 1975 she was chosen as "Advertising Person of the Year" by the sixth district of the American Advertising Federation.[3] In 1976 she was elected as the first African-American women to head the Cosmopolitan Chamber of Commerce.[2] She was the president of the National League of Black Women from 1978 to 1982.[2] In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured her name and picture.[4] She received the 1980 Headliner Award from the Association for Women in Communications.[2] From 1983 to 1984, she was the cochair of the Gannon-Proctor Commission, which was appointed by the governor of Illinois to study the economy of Illinois.[2] She was cited by President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address, and was included in his 1986 special report "Risk to Riches: Women and Entrepreneurship in America."[2] The Smithsonian Institution also featured her in its "Black Women Achievement against the Odds Hall of Fame.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 John N. Ingham; Lynne B. Feldman (1994). African-American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 564–. ISBN 978-0-313-27253-0.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rachel Kranz (1 January 2004). African-American Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs. Infobase Publishing. pp. 237–. ISBN 978-1-4381-0779-0.
  3. ↑ Johnson Publishing Company (8 May 1975). Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. pp. 16–. ISSN 0021-5996.
  4. ↑ Wulf, Steve (2015-03-23). "Supersisters: Original Roster". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 2015-06-04.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.