One-on-One
One on One with Dr. Randal Pinkett
By Lango Deen
Jan 5, 2006, 15:58

USBE&IT Online spoke to Dr. Randal Pinkett, winner of the fourth installment of NBC’s The Apprentice. Dr. Pinkett is president and CEO of Building Community Technology (BCT) Partners.  The Newark, N.J.-based management, technology, and policy consulting services firm was founded by Pinkett and three other Black engineers: partner Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, partner and CTO Lawrence Hibbert, and partner Dallas Grundy.
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USBE&IT: You’re an entrepreneur, an academic with five degrees, and a philanthropist. How do you bring all your interests together?
 
Randal Pinkett: I’ve always been blessed with abilities in math, science, and engineering and always had a great concern for conditions in communities of color, but I had never conceptualized the possibility of merging the two. I’d studied engineering at Rutgers and continued to be involved in community service. But it wasn’t until I got to MIT and was exposed to a lot of the wonderful work that was being done to encourage African Americans and communities of color in low-income communities to explore the benefits of technology that I had a moment of epiphany and combined where we were at that point—seemingly disparate interests—into a career direction.
 

USBE&IT: Addressing the digital divide, which you investigated in your doctoral dissertation, are programs like Career Communications Group's Black Family Technology Awareness Week campaign (sponsored by IBM) which is creating digital awareness and opportunities.
 
RP: Absolutely! I think the issue is multi-faceted, and it requires a myriad of approaches in order to address it. And one of those angles, so to speak, is raising awareness from a variety of perspectives. [The issue] is raising awareness about why or how technology can improve quality of life. For our young people, it’s getting them excited about technology and the underlying disciplines that produce technology: math, science, engineering, etc. In my estimation, another powerful message is encouraging young people and adults to look at ways they can be producers of technology, not just consumers. [We should look at ourselves] as engineers and scientists, as creators and producers, creating Web sites and not merely pointing and clicking.
 
 USBE&IT: The annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards conferences celebrate accomplishments of Black engineers like you. Is it luck, hard work, or both?
 
RP: I’m a product of a lot of the efforts that others have undertaken. I’m a product of minority introduction to engineering programs. I’m a product of the National Society of Black Engineers. I’m a product of efforts to encourage African Americans to pursue graduate degrees—masters, Ph.D.s. I’m a product of the movement in the late 1980s/early 1990s to encourage African Americans to support Black-owned businesses, to recycle Black dollars in the Black expo phenomenon, which was really hot around that time. I’m a product of all those efforts, and in that regard, I attribute my success to the very radical efforts that came before me to open the door, create programs, and provide access to these kinds of opportunities. 
 
For my generation and others who have benefited from these efforts, we now have the responsibility to maximize them and translate them into greater opportunities for the next generation. And so, to the extent that I can quite honestly generate wealth, quite honestly support philanthropic efforts, be a role model or spokesperson or advocate for these same causes, that ball continues to gain momentum.  I look to my parents’ generation. They came up from Brown v. Board of Education, and they were able to go to integrated schools, and their responsibility was to take advantage of that and pave the way for people like me, and likewise I see myself in that position.
 
  
USBE&IT: What advice would you give to 2006 college graduates?
 
 RP: Explore opportunities in the marketplace, but be mindful of the fact that a college degree is fast becoming what a high school diploma used to be. Nowadays, a graduate degree is just one way in which you can distinguish yourself in the market. Experience, at the end of the day, is the best teacher. For some, it’s working and then going back to school. For others, it’s going straight through, because they have a better sense for their areas of interests. Whatever the case, consider looking at graduate school.
 
 
USBE&IT: It looks like this will be an eventful year for you. Where do you see yourself at this time next year?
 
RP: This year, I hope to become a spokesperson for some charitable organizations, and I’m exploring that territory now. Certainly, as it relates to The Apprentice, and being an entrepreneur, by the end of the year, I hope to have learned as much as I can from Donald Trump. I hope to look at ways that I can bring that knowledge and experience back to my company, BCT Partners, so that we are in a stronger position this time in 2007 as a result of the relationships I have acquired over the course of the year.
 
 I’m in discussions with publishers. I have a book tentatively called Black Faces in White Places, which talks about my experiences and those of Jeffrey Robinson, my college roommate. We are both African Americans educated in predominantly white institutions. There’s a chance we might extend that now to our professional life. And I have a couple of other books. I plan to continue doing speaking engagements and getting involved in community service. I’ve got a good number of inquiries for me to endorse products and possibly do some commercials. I’ve already agreed to endorse a men’s grooming line called amenity (www.getamenity.com)