David Steward grew up with seven siblings in the segregated South, his father working as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector. After earning his business degree from Central Missouri State University, he was laid off from his first job at Wagner Electric, then became the first African American sales representative at Missouri Pacific Railroad, before moving to FedEx, where he was named salesman of the year.
In 1990, after founding two freight-auditing businesses, Steward launched World Wide Technology (WWT) with a handful of employees and a 4,000-square-foot office. In its early years he sometimes went without a paycheck, and once had his own car repossessed from the company parking lot.
Steward built WWT into the largest Black-owned business in the United States, with more than 12,000 employees and $20 billion in annual revenue, making him the wealthiest African American, with a fortune exceeding $10 billion.
- Founder and Chairman of World Wide Technology, the largest Black-owned company in the U.S.
- Wealthiest African American, with a fortune exceeding $10 billion
- Named FedEx Salesman of the Year and inducted into its Hall of Fame
- Donated $1.3 million to found the Steward Institute for Jazz Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louis
- Master the unglamorous first business before the big one.. His freight-bill auditing companies built the technology insight that led to WWT.
- Keep the company running even when you personally cannot afford to.. He went without a paycheck in WWT's early years, even losing his own car.
- Lead with principle, not just profit.. His faith-based, servant-leadership approach became a defining part of WWT's culture.