Richelieu Dennis: Entrepreneurial and Philanthropic Accomplishments

For some people, entrepreneurship comes so naturally that it is a part of their DNA. For Rich Dennis, entrepreneurship is simply all he’s ever known. His grandparents were entrepreneurs and successful business professionals. Their passion for entrepreneurship was passed on to his mother and Dennis himself. Apart from entrepreneurship, he's also been instilled with a deep care for others. Rich Dennis has used his professional success to fuel community projects and to seek opportunities to invest in worthy businesses that could benefit from a leg up..

Here are a few highlights from the dynamic professional career and the many philanthropic achievements of entrepreneur and lifelong humanitarian Rich Dennis.

Dennis’ path to achieving a leadership position in the business world began when he landed a scholarship to study at Babson College. After finishing school and in a moment where he needed extra income for personal upkeep, Dennis discovered a genius way to monetize the use of shea butter.

Dennis' mother had used shea butter products since he was a little boy when they had lived in Sierra Leone. Growing up during a time of civil unrest and upheaval, his family came up with very creative and smart ways to live and survive. This meant sometimes producing and selling shea butter products on their village streets for his grandmother. After his family moved to the US, his mother continued those practices, making shea butter and African black soap into skin care products that she would sell to friends and neighbors. It was from this that Dennis’ idea came to life.

Shea Butter Idea

From Dennis' perspective, shea butter was not simply a skincare product but an opportunity. With a beauty and skin care market heavily catering to lighter complexions, few skin or hair care products targeted ethnic groups and specifically black women. Rich Dennis had witnessed how shea butter had produced such positive effects for his mother’s friends and neighbors always offering amazing results. Dennis and his mother started small, first offering the products to his classmates and then selling them to the public on 125th street in Harlem on the weekends. The fact that these products were all-natural only added to their appeal.

A Change of Plans

When he went to university, Rich Dennis' goal was to eventually return to his home country to begin a citrus farming business. This had been his dream since he was a boy. Yet, that plan changed entirely. Dennis and his mother and a college roommate spent years running this beauty business out of the back of his car and from a single vendor’s table they set up some days in a busier part of Halem in NYC.

Dennis used his understanding of business learned from his family growing up and perfected it at Babson College to think about his business strategically and to fill a niche in the market. After adding a variety of products to their offering the business had grown to a place where they were delivering product to other vendors and selling at major supply fairs. Once Dennis and his partners were regularly supplying health food stores and other local businesses with products for their shelves, he knew that they were in a position to form a full retail brand called Sundial Brands.

After 16 years, Rich Dennis, his mother Mary Dennis, and friend Nyema Tubman eventually founded Sundial Brands. Under Dennis' leadership, the brand grew from delivering beauty products from the back of a car in NYC to a major worldwide brand with global distribution.

Investment and Philanthropy

Rich Dennis is passionate about investing in the future of others around him. By becoming a significant investor in projects and small businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them, he's empowered many to reach their goals. Dennis received that spirit of giving from his family and through his culture back at home as a young boy. He has pursued helping others succeed at their endeavors as long as he has been pursuing success for himself. It has always simply been second-nature to Dennis.

Sundial Community Commerce

Through Sundial's Community Commerce projects, Rich Dennis has improved the infrastructure, educational opportunities, and healthcare access of communities in need all over the world. In Liberia specifically, these projects work together with the communities to assess their needs and meet them. Thus, they fill some gaps left by poor government planning or lack of funding. For example, Sundial community commerce leaders noticed that attendance in newly-built schoolhouses remained low despite the upgrade in location and facility. After investigation, the company figured out that they needed to drill new wells near the schoolhouse so that children would no longer miss school to fetch water.

Corporate social responsibility is an integral part of Sundial Brands' identity.

New Voices Fund

The New Voices Fund is a partnership between Unilever and Sundial Brands that specifically invests in black women entrepreneurs and empowers them to overcome obstacles and succeed in meeting their goals. New Voices Fund supplies financial support, business skills, networking opportunities, and workshops in developing leadership styles. Over the years, New Voices Fund has been the pathway by which many woman have become successful entrepreneurs

Rich Dennis Accomplishments

Rich Dennis is a multifaceted man who works hard and wears many hats. Not only is he a successful business mogul, but he is also a community leader and philanthropist. Throughout his career, he's worked hard to succeed himself, but most always places others first. More so, he's empowered thousands of budding entrepreneurs to realize their true potential and assisted communities from all over the world on to their feet. Rich Dennis serves as a philanthropic inspiration and the model of entrepreneurial success to so many people across the world.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes