CBH Talk | “Never Far From Home,” Bruce Jackson and Ron Howell in Conversation

Bruce Jackson’s new book, Never Far From Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law, relays his remarkable journey starting as a youth in Brooklyn and NYCHA’s Amsterdam Houses surrounded by poverty, urban blight, and a rigged criminal justice system, and ending today, with a successful career,a senior role at Microsoft, and much wisdom to impart. Jackson is interviewed by Ron Howell, author of The Boss of Black Brooklyn, in a conversation that touches on the Black experience in Brooklyn and the role of perseverance.  

Participants

Bruce Jackson is an Associate General Counsel/Strategic Business Advisor with over 32 years of experience assisting public and privately held companies including Financial Services, Health and Life Science, Public Sector and Entertainment companies grow their businesses. Bruce’s career reflects a demonstrated track record in supporting successful large-scale transformation and executing digital transformation transactions in domestic and global markets. He has been successful in helping customers in regulated industries meet their regulatory requirements when migrating to the cloud. He is credited for helping to remove blockers to help both financial and professional service companies move to the cloud. He brings a broad range of skills including, technical, leadership, business management, and creative thinking. He also brings deep privacy and security experience through his work with customers migration to the cloud.

Currently, Bruce is the Associate General Counsel/ Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft. He was the Associate General Counsel/business advisor of Microsoft’s US sales organization, a $20B business, and the Regulated Industries Group, a $15B business. Bruce has been significantly involved in executing multiple contracts, including two of the largest and most significant in the company’s history. He has also supported several enterprise-wide transformation initiatives focused on enabling the companies to reach their business potential.

Bruce was the founding and managing partner of a successful entertainment law firm where he was responsible for all aspects of budgeting, planning, accounting, marketing, and client development. However, Bruce started his career as a tax attorney where he advised corporate clients.

He currently serves on Mayor Eric Adams’ Corporate Counsel committee. He is also a member of the advisory Board for the National Association of Women and minority Law Firm and the Universal Hip-Hop Museum in the Bronx. Microsoft contributed 5 million to the museum, the largest corporate contribution, to preserve the Hip Hop culture. Bruce previously served on not-for-profit boards including Henry Street Settlement where he served on the Technology Committee. He was also appointed by Governor Patterson to New York State’s Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence.

Bruce is also a passionate proponent for Diversity and Inclusion. Bruce’s personal commitment to diversity, inclusion, community, and youth is demonstrated through his numerous civic activities and non- profit board membership. He received numerous internal and external awards and honors including, but not limited to, an industry best practice award by the American Bar Association. He is a founding Member of Microsoft’s diversity committee. He also presented several times to the Financial Service Committee, Chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, on Diversity and Inclusion.

Bruce received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Hofstra University and a JD and an LL.M in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Ron Howell is a septuagenarian native Brooklynite, born to a mom and dad who were also native Brooklynites. Black Brooklyn is in Ron's heart and soul. His 2018 book, published by Fordham University Press, is titled Boss of Black Brooklyn: The Life and Times of Bertram L. Baker. In 1948, Bertram Baker became the very first Black person ever elected to political office in Brooklyn. As an assemblyman and political "boss," he effectively named Brooklyn's first Black judges and other office holders. Baker was Ron's maternal grandfather.

Last year, Ron retired as a professor of journalism and composition at Brooklyn College. Prior to teaching, he had been a writer for a number of news outlets, including Newsday, Ebony Magazine, The Associated Press, New York Daily News and the Baltimore Evening Sun.

In 1987, Ron spent a week traveling around Cuba with Assata Shakur, a Black Revolutionary who was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He wrote an article for Newsday about his experience, "On the Run With Assata Shakur." Ron has written thousands of other articles. Many of the recent ones bemoan how gentrification has changed Black Brooklyn, making it unaffordable for many of those Ron grew up with. Despite his strong Brooklyn roots, Ron has traveled the world reporting for newspapers. He speaks Spanish and French. He and his wife and son lived for a time in the 1980s in Mexico.

In addition to Boss of Black Brooklyn, Ron wrote a 2021 Fordham University Press book titled King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne. It traces Sharpton's controversial path from the late 1900s to his current moment as a popular cable news host and influential Black activist. In 2000, the New Press published Ron's book One Hundred Jobs: A Panorama of Life in the American City. It profiles a vast range of workers, each having a photo taken by Pulitzer Prize-wining photograph Ozier Muhammad. Ron is currently researching a book that will dive into Brooklyn's Black political history, going back farther than the early 1900s when Bertram Baker came of political age.

Ron is a graduate of Yale College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.