Rutgers, 1994
• 1993 Honorable Mention Academic All-America®
Dr. Randal Pinkett was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2011.
A socially conscious entrepreneur since his youth, this 1993 Academic All-America® team member co-founded his first company from his Rutgers dorm room, selling CDs and cassettes to fund high school outreach programs.
Dr. Pinkett served as captain of the Rutgers varsity men’s track & field team, president of the Rutgers Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, and won the 1994 Walter Byers Scholarship for the NCAA’s top male student-athlete, before graduating summa cum laude with a 3.9 cumulative GPA. He became the first African-American from Rutgers to become a Rhodes Scholar, earning a master’s in computer science from the University of Oxford. Dr. Pinkett then went on to earn two more master’s degrees and his Ph.D. at MIT.
In 2001 Dr. Pinkett formed BCT Partners, a consulting firm that works with Fortune 500 companies, federal government agencies, and non-profit organizations. After winning the fourth season of Donald Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice in 2005, he oversaw the $110 million renovation of three of Trump’s Atlantic City resorts. Author of three books on entrepreneurship, Dr. Pinkett also served as co-chair of Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker’s transition team; chair of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee’s “Yes We Can 2.0,” a program that encourages citizens to vote; and is a spokesperson for Autism Speaks.
Born: Philadelphia, Pa.
High School: Hightstown High School (Hightstown, NJ)
Occupation: Chairman and CEO of BCT Partners