Inc. Magazine – September 2019

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

42 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● ● ● ●


Did it affect your family directly?


Very directly and very personally.


We lost a lot of extended family
members, but a lot of painful things

happened in my immediate family


during that period as well. I grew up
seeing how cruel humans could be

to one another. I think that shaped


a lot of my sense of fairness.


Did you think, “I’ve gotta get


the hell out of here”?


It really wasn’t “I’ve gotta get the
hell out of here” as much as “What

is causing all of this?” And what


role can I play, and what can I do? I
became very sort of socially active,

more active around students’ rights,


education rights. Back then, teach-
ers beat the students. I didn’t think

that was right. I was very vocal


about that, so I got beaten a lot.
I saw the inequalities and injustices

around women and economics. My


mother was a single parent by then.


She was an economist in the Libe-


rian government; my father died of


cancer when I was 8. I come from a
family of entrepreneurs. Both my

maternal and my paternal grand-


mothers were entrepreneurs. My
father and my grandmother were

actually business partners, just as


my mother and I are today.


How did you end up at Babson?


I got a scholarship. As things started


to really deteriorate in Liberia and
there were more uprisings, my

mother, Mary, just felt it was time


for me to leave. Early on, I realized
that the way to solve some of these

issues was through wealth. Because


otherwise, you’re always asking
somebody else’s permission. You’re

always under somebody else’s


influence.


So did Sundial start while you


were an undergraduate?


I grew up in Liberia at a very tumultuous


time, a very violent time. We had our first


set of riots that really shook the country


when I was 10 years old. We had those riots


in ’79, and then the following year we had


the coup d’état. Just extremely violent.


THE INC. INTERVIEW Richelieu Dennis

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