User:Kbcc1995

Apostle Jamie T. Pleasant, Ph.D.
Apostle Jamie T. Pleasant, Ph.D., was born October 9, 1962, in Sumter, South Carolina, as an only child to Anthony and Bertha Pleasant. His parents were entrepreneurs during the early 1940s, and he inherited their spirit of economic development and business ownership at an early age. At the young age of eight, Apostle Pleasant began working in a corner grocery store and also sold Grit newspapers to earn his own money. At twelve, after his mother died, he started his first two businesses, owning a landscaping business and refreshment stand. His first year of business brought him more than $5,000 in revenues.

At his father’s passing, with no brothers or sisters, his passion and pursuit to earn a college degree would not be hampered by life’s circumstances. He began working odd jobs in the janitorial and restaurant industries at night while attending college in the day to make ends meet. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, Apostle Pleasant then transferred to Clemson University where he walked on the football team to later earn an athletic scholarship while studying business. He further advanced his education by achieving an M.B.A. in Marketing from Clark Atlanta University. Apostle Pleasant then advanced to pursue his Ph.D., and finally, on August 13, 1999, he achieved a Georgia Tech milestone by becoming the first African American to graduate with a Ph.D. in Business Management in the school’s 111-year history. On July 31, 1995, through a successful radio ministry, Kingdom Builders Christian Center (www.kingdombuilders.org) was established. God gave Apostle Pleasant the vision to establish a Bible-based economic-development initiative for the church. As a result, Apostle Pleasant is constantly sought after and he remains at the pulse of the economic business sector. He created programs in the church such as the Wealth Builders Investment Club (WBIC), which educates and allows members to actively invest in the stock market, along with the much celebrated Institute of Entrepreneurship (IOE), where community members earn a certificate in entrepreneurship after three months of comprehensive training on aspects of starting and owning a successful competitive business. The main goal and purpose of IOE is that each year one of the trained businesses will be awarded up to $10,000 start-up money to ensure financial success. The newly added SAT and PSAT prep courses for children ages nine to nineteen fuel the potential success of all who walk through the doors of Kingdom Builders Christian Center.

Apostle Pleasant has met with government officials such as President Clinton and Nelson Mandela. After the Columbine High School shooting, he founded the National School Safety Advocacy Association (NSSAA). Most recently, in 2006, Apostle Pleasant became the founder of the African American Consumer and Economic Rights (AACER) organization as well as the founder and senior editor of the E-Journal of Ethnic Marketing (www.joemonline.org/). In addition to serving as Chief Executive Pastor at Kingdom Builders, he is currently a Marketing professor at Clark Atlanta University. Apostle Pleasant has been teaching for 13 years.

Apostle Pleasant is the husband of Pastor Kimberly Pleasant and the proud father of three children, Christian, Zion, and Nacara.

--Kbcc1995 17:16, 12 September 2007 (UTC)