Sheila Johnson co-founded BET in 1979, then built a hotel and resort business of her own.
A co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, Sheila Johnson later started Salamander Hotels and Resorts and became a leading donor to education and women’s causes.
Sheila Crump Johnson was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in 1949, the daughter of a neurosurgeon and an accountant. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
From BET to hospitality
In 1979, with her first husband Robert, she co-founded the cable channel Black Entertainment Television. Viacom bought the company in 1999 for 3 billion dollars. She sold her BET shares in 2002 and used the proceeds to invest in hotels, real estate and horses, and in 2005 founded Salamander Hotels and Resorts.
Its portfolio includes the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, Hotel Bennett in Charleston, Half Moon in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Aurora Anguilla. She is a vice chairman and partner of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which manages the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics.
Giving back
Johnson is a global ambassador for CARE, and her Sheila’s I Am Powerful Challenge raised over 8 million dollars in 2007 to support women in fighting poverty. She chairs the board of governors of Parsons The New School for Design and funded its Sheila C. Johnson Design Center.
Her story shows what a founder does with the first win: she reinvested and then started again in a new industry.
