Youngest Black CEO of a Publicly Traded Company
On May 5, 2006 City Capital Corporation announced the appointment of Ephren W. Taylor II as the Company's new CEO. The appointment makes CEO Ephren Taylor, at 23, one of the youngest CEOs of a publicly traded company in the U.S., as well as the youngest African American CEO of a public company.
Although only 23, Mr. Taylor has over a decade of experience building successful companies and a solid network of team members and resources for the expansion of CCCN. Starting at age 12, his first company designed 3-D computer games. He grew his second company, a job search portal for teens and college students called GoFerretGo, to a street value of $3.2M, #4 of all teen businesses nationwide (YoungBiz Magazine). He was recognized as Kansas Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 by the Kansas Department of Commerce for his exceptional investment strategies, originally developed to assist churches with their investment and funding needs. He later expanded the concepts to include other non-profit endowments, especially those of entertainment and sports figures. In February AmoroCorp took over management of Snoop Dogg's "Snoop Youth Football League" endowment, and on May 3 the company sponsored a Guest List Only (G.L.O.) event at the Kentucky Derby, honoring Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.
ECC Jazz also developed from these concepts, which Mr. Taylor defines as "Empowering Communities With Socially-Conscious Economic Development" The decision to go public provides additional resources to accomplish this mission.
"We create true win-win-win developments, and even share profits from the venture and other benefits with the community itself," Taylor said. "Instead of telling a city what we want to build and what kinds of incentives we expect, we ask them to tell us their long-range goals, for revitalization and community-building. Then we partner with them -- utilizing every available incentive to literally create our own market."
The company counts over 225 years of combined expertise in all key areas, almost ten times the age of the founder himself. "And that extensive experience gives us incredibly fast turnaround on projects, while creating extremely good returns on investment for our client-partners." Current projects include the Kansas City Historic Jazz District, a 214-unit condominium, a 400-home subdivision, and over 150 homes in Cleveland's historic 7th Ward.
Mr. Taylor sees many ways CCCN will enhance this legacy. "Cities nationwide approach us to partner with them on local redevelopment initiatives. City Capital provides key elements to allow us to acquire and expedite more projects into additional markets, which is right in line with our current business plan."
