Janice Bryant Howroyd (born September 1, 1952) is an entrepreneur, businesswoman, and author. She is founder and chief executive officer of The ActOne Group, the largest privately held, minority-woman-owned personnel company founded in the U.S. Howroyd is the first African-American woman to build and own a billion dollar company.

Early life

Janice Bryant was born on September 1, 1952, in Tarboro, North Carolina, the fourth of 11 children in her family. As a teen, she was one of the first African American students to participate in desegregation of her town's high school.

Career

In 1976, Howroyd moved to Los Angeles, California, and worked as a temporary secretary for her brother-in-law, Tom Noonan, at Billboard magazine. While at Billboard, Noonan introduced Howroyd to business executives, celebrities, travel, and workplace diversity. With an approximate budget of $1,000 Howroyd continued to focus on employment services and launched her own company, The ACT 1 Group, in a small Beverly Hills, California, office in 1978, with Tom Noonan as her first client. ActOne Group companies include AppleOne, All's Well, AT-Tech, ACT-1 Personnel Services, Agile-1, ACT-1Govt, A-Check Global, which provide personnel and recruiting services to different industries, and DSSI, which provides document management services. Howroyd is an ambassador of the Department of Energy's Minorities in Energy Initiative, a board member to numerous organizations including the United States Department of Labor's Workforce Initiative Board, Women's Business Enterprise National Council, WeConnect, National Utilities Diversity Council, Harvard Women's Leadership Board, California Science Center, Los Angeles Urban League and a member of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Services and Finance Industries of the U.S. Trade Representative and the United States Department of Commerce. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. In May 2016 Howroyd received a key presidential appointment by President Barack Obama as a member of the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In 2017 she joined the Diversity Committee of the FCC. Since 2016, Howroyd has served on the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Board of Directors as an officer as Treasurer.

Awards and honors