Reginald Lewis bought McCall Pattern for 22.5 million dollars and later built TLC Beatrice into a billion-dollar company.

Reginald Lewis was born in Baltimore in 1942. As a boy he delivered the Baltimore Afro-American to ten neighbours, built the route to 100 customers and sold it for a profit. At Dunbar High School he was team captain in football, baseball and basketball. He earned a football scholarship to Virginia State University and was accepted to Harvard Law School, reportedly before he had even applied, after a summer programme there.

Lawyer to dealmaker

After law school he joined a top New York firm, then left two years later to start his own. After fifteen years as a corporate lawyer, he moved to the other side of the table, creating the private equity firm TLC Group in 1983.

His first major deal was the purchase of the McCall Pattern Company, a home sewing pattern business, for 22.5 million dollars. He raised 1 million dollars from family and friends and borrowed the rest from institutional investors and the investment bank First Boston. Within a year he had turned the company around, freeing capital tied up in fixed assets and finding new uses for machinery.

He went on to build TLC Beatrice International Holdings, the first company led by an African American to reach a billion dollars. Forbes listed him among the 400 richest Americans in 1993, the year he died. His career shows how education, preparation and a careful read of a balance sheet can open doors.