Byron E. Lewis, Sr. is Founder and Chairman Emeritus, UniWorld Group, Inc. Now in its 44th year of a successful business operation, UniWorld is the nation’s oldest surviving multicultural advertising company.
Over four decades, the Agency has won some of the largest mainstream advertising accounts ever awarded to an ethnic agency. These include AT & T, Burger King, Ford Motor Company and Lincoln automotive brands, Mars Candy-Three Musketeers, Colgate-Palmolive, US Marine Corp, and, The Home Depot, among others. A visionary, Lewis is responsible for a variety of break-through television, radio, and media-driven events bridging major corporate clients with the African-American culture.
During the late 1970s, Lewis was selected by the US State Department to visit a number of African countries. Utilizing his “Advertising as a Nation-Builder,” theme, he promoted advertising and national brand-building strategies in Sudan, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana. He was instrumental in building and partially funding an innovative Small Business Institute at his alma mater, Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York.
Lewis holds a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Journalism from Long Island University with graduate credits from New York University (NYU). He is featured in numerous business books including Black Enterprise Titans: Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business by Derek Dingle. He holds many honors: Honorary Degree from Adelphi University; Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards from Medgar Evers College (CUNY), University of the West Indies, Target Market News, the American Advertising Federation (AAF); and the AG Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award from Black Enterprise Magazine.
He has served on many boards including: Apollo Theater Foundation, Jackie Robinson Educational Foundation, and Trustees Board of Long Island University. Lewis is an Army veteran and Hall of Fame member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.