Speakers

Kendall Qualls is the President of TakeCharge. TakeCharge strives to unite Americans regardless of background toward a shared history and common set of beliefs. They celebrate with people that have achieved the American dream while encouraging people still working to achieve it. Kendall leads an organization that inspires and educates black and other minority communities to take charge of their own lives and not to rely on government and politicians for redemption and prosperity. Mr. Qualls has a unique vantage point to convey that message and to plant the seeds of change desperately needed. During his childhood, Mr. Qualls lived with his divorced mother and siblings in public housing projects of Harlem, NY in the late 1960s. Before middle school, Mr. Qualls left NYC to live with his father who lived in a trailer park in Oklahoma. Neither of his parents finished high school. Despite the challenges and turmoil of his early life, Mr. Qualls worked full-time to pay for college, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, earned three graduate degrees including an MBA from the University of Michigan. He worked his way up the ranks at several Fortune 100 healthcare companies before he became Global Vice President of an $850M business unit. Mr. Qualls champions the principles of meritocracy and supports the notion that free enterprise, and the private sector are the fastest and most equitable way to lift people from poverty to prosperity including black Americans. Mr. Qualls has been married to his wife, Sheila for 35-years and they have five children together. He was a mentor at Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge. He serves on the Board for Lundstrum’s Performing Arts Center in North Minneapolis as well as Hope Farm School, a school for at-risk boys from Minneapolis.