Edward Lewis

Lewis is senior advi­sor for Sol­era Cap­i­tal, a New York-based pri­vate equity invest­ment firm, and chair­man and co-founder of Latina Media Ven­tures. He served as chair­man and founder of Essence Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, pub­lisher of Essence mag­a­zine, which he built into one of the country’s largest African Amer­i­can mul­ti­me­dia orga­ni­za­tions. Lewis served as chair­man and founder of Essence Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, pub­lisher of Essence mag­a­zine, which he built into one of the country’s largest African Amer­i­can mul­ti­me­dia organizations. Born in New York’s South Bronx, Lewis, the son of a jan­i­tor and a beau­ti­cian and fac­tory worker, grad­u­ated from DeWitt Clin­ton High School in 1958. He attended the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, where he minored in Russ­ian and Chi­nese his­tory and received his B.A. in polit­i­cal sci­ence in 1963 and M.A. in polit­i­cal sci­ence and inter­na­tional rela­tions in 1967. After briefly attend­ing George­town Uni­ver­sity School of Law, Lewis began his career in the busi­ness world as a credit ana­lyst at Citibank while attend­ing New York Uni­ver­sity at night. He com­pleted Har­vard Busi­ness School’s Small Busi­ness Man­age­ment Pro­gram in 1982.