Velma Treyham hasn’t been in office very long, but she’s already become one of Arizona’s most important business leaders.
Treyham has only been president and CEO of the Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce for a few months, but he is now in charge of economic development in one of the fastest growing states in the country.
So what’s the plan to keep the problems that have plagued Black communities in major cities across the nation from migrating to Phoenix?
“My vision is that within the next five years, we’ll have more businesses that are employers,” Treyham said, “Black-owned businesses that can hire, that have an impact on the GDP, that have an economic impact on the dollar, that increase the economic purchasing power of the state of Arizona.”
Treyham is building a diverse business community
To do that, she will have to bridge many gaps: between established leaders and newcomers, between the haves and the have-nots, between insiders and outsiders, and between races that serve no one.
“We need collaboration,” she said. “Collaboration is important. We can’t do anything alone.”
Treyham wants to help build a business community where diverse leaders and groups lift each other up through sharing resources and connections rather than monopolizing or gatekeeping behavior, and he believes that can happen here if it hasn’t always happened elsewhere.
“If we come together and bring our resources and our information capital and our human capital together and come to the table … I think we have the potential to be a model,” she said.
“Right now, there are a lot of people in Arizona who are looking at the growth we’re experiencing here and the increase in Black business owners in manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and real estate. The opportunity is there, but to fully realize the potential and maximize the opportunity, people first need to know it exists.”
That’s where the Black Chamber of Commerce comes in.
Treyham describes the organization as “an advocacy group that helps small businesses and provides them with the resources to build and expand successful businesses, including access to capital resources, contracting opportunities and help developing marketing strategies.”
She has an inspiring rags to riches story.
It’s an audacious goal, but Treyham might have what it takes to pull it off.
She’s an entrepreneur with ThinkZILLA, a consulting firm that works with organizations across Arizona from the City of Scottsdale to SRP, and she’s also the author of the self-published self-help memoir, “When God Says Go,” which tells her rags to riches story, overcoming poverty, divorce, and a car accident that she says should have killed her.
“All I remember is people screaming: ‘Is she alive?’ I remember waking up in the hospital and the doctor saying: ‘I don’t know how you survived this, but you did survive without a scratch,'” she said.
From there, her goal became clear.
“My purpose in life is to eradicate poverty through entrepreneurship,” she said.
Treyham describes himself as a “first-generation entrepreneur, first-generation college grad, first-generation millionaire…first-generation all around.”
This gives her a unique understanding of the challenges budding entrepreneurs may face, and more importantly, the experience that can help them overcome such obstacles.Her life experience is a big reason why the Black Chamber runs support programs for entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of their development.
Breaking racial barriers requires cooperation
It’s important to note that Treyham believes inclusivity is key.
“My vision is for the Black business community here in Arizona to embrace our economic buying power and for other communities to understand and respect our buying power,” she said. “Because so often it’s assumed we’re asking for handouts. We’re not asking for handouts. We’re asking for equal opportunity. We’re asking for investment capital, financial information, access to investors.”
For Treyham, it works both ways.
“I think a lot of people think this should just be a black thing,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a black thing.”
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Treyham said Black leaders need to continue to demonstrate and elevate their value by focusing on “our value proposition and the problems we were put on earth to solve.”
In other words, we all know the barriers exist, but sometimes ignoring them makes them easier to overcome, opening the door to opportunities for advocates like Treyham to scale small businesses into ones that create generational wealth.
Phoenix can become a center of black wealth.
Only time will tell how successful she will be, but Treyham has already launched programs to help with financial literacy, mentorship and access to contract bidding.
She is working with Arizona State University and Thunderbird School of Global Management to develop an internship and capstone program.
And she has built partnerships with companies like JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cox Communications.
If Treyham’s plan works, as long as enough people support her and help her achieve her goal, Phoenix could become a center of black wealth and help show the rest of the country what the next step toward social and economic progress looks like.
Even though she has become one of the most important business leaders in the state, she can’t do it alone.
Contact Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter). Moore.
