BOOST FOR MINORITY BUSINESS

When Walter Durham received his Master’s of Business Administration degree fromSMU, he took a job that usually would groom young men for high-power positions in big business. He worked as assistant to Ralph Rogers, chairman of Texas Industries. But Durham quit his job not long after he started to pursue a rather far-off dream. Thirteen years ago, Durham started the Minority Enterprise Small-Business Investment Company (MESBIC) Financial Corporation of Dallas. The company was formed to invest in and provide financial support for minority businesses. It was the third such organization to be established under former President Nixon’s administration; the other two organizations had failed.

Although the Dallas MESBIC is far from failing, Durham is quick to point out that the privately owned, federally licensed venture-capital company was not always the profitable organization that it is today. He says that when he started the MESBIC, he naively thought he could raise $1 million the first year. Instead, he raised only $150,000 and began knocking on the doors of area banks.

He was turned away often that first year. He says that he was labeled a “do-good liberal” but that he is in fact a self-proclaimed “do-good conservative.” He was told by more people than he’d care to remember that the project would never get off the ground.

It seemed that no bank wanted to be the first to invest, so toward the end of the year, Durham persuaded several Dallas bank executives to send representatives to a meeting. At that meeting, the group decided to take the plunge together and take the other 25 banks in the local clearinghouse with them. The MESBIC got a total of $300,000 out of the deal, but, more important, according to Durham, it got a vote of confidence from 32 banks.

Now the MESBIC can name 23 of the top 50 local companies as shareholders, (eight of the top 10), all of the major banks and other well-known corporations such as IBM and Xerox. Top executives from InterFirst Bank, RepublicBank and Mercantile Bank serve on the board of directors along with executives from SEDCO Inc., Lomas & Nettleton Financial Corp., Campbell Taggart Inc., Fox & Jacobs Inc., Dr Pepper Co. and other high-ranking corporations.

The MESBIC has received free legal advice from Jen-kens & Gilchrist and free accounting assistance from Dallas’ Arthur Young & Co. Durham was the first person to receive joint awards from President Reagan and the Small-Business Administration for his work with the Dallas MESBIC, which now has a pool of $4 million.

The company has 23 portfolio companies, and although last year was a little tighter than the past few years, a number of minorityowned companies received loans, including Delatorre Sheet Metal Mfg. Co. Inc., Archer Wholesale Distributors Inc., NAMD Industries Inc., Focus Communications, BG Electronics, Robins Landscaping, Frank’s Automotive and Supreme Engraving. One of the largest deals in the Dallas MESBIC’s history was put together last year; the Moreno Group Inc. acquired H-R Industries Inc. in a $1.9 million transaction. Durham says the organization is especially proud of the transaction because of the man behind it – Hispanic civic and business leader Sam Moreno. Durham says that Moreno is a role model for minorities, which is proof that the MESBIC does work.

Durham says that, looking back, he’s glad he didn’t raise $1 million during his first year. He’s glad he worked for it. “You learn more from adversity,” he says.