OUR STORY
We don't do charity. We build economic infrastructure.
— Jackee Kasandy, Founder & CEO
THE TIMELINE
From 1996 to now.
- 1996
The Black Business Initiative takes root.
Dr. Rustum Southwell and community leaders establish the Black Business Initiative in Nova Scotia — Canada's first dedicated Black business development organization. The proof-of-concept for what national infrastructure could look like.
- 2021
BEBC Society is founded.
Jackee Kasandy founds the Black Entrepreneurship BC Society in British Columbia to bring Black business certification and programming to national scale. The mission: redirect $1 billion to Black-owned businesses.
- 2022
First cohort. First certification. First contracts.
The first BEBC program cohort launches. First procurement certifications are issued. First contracts are inked — proving the BBI model works outside Nova Scotia and at national scale.
- 2023
BEST Method formalized. Supplier Council launched.
The BEST Method — Build, Empower, Stabilize, Transform — is formalized as BEBC's signature programming framework. The Supplier Council launches, connecting certified Black suppliers to corporate buyers. The Bank of the Future (BOF) partnership is established.
- 2024
Infrastructure at scale.
27+ contracts inked. $4M+ in loans facilitated. 145 certified Black-owned suppliers across Canada. The Black Business Summit draws 2,300+ online attendees. National expansion underway.
- 2026
$1B goal. The architecture is being built.
The $1B goal is set publicly. Every certification, every contract, every cohort is a building block toward the economic infrastructure Black Canada deserves. The work continues.
THE PROBLEM
The gap is structural.
$70–150 billion cycles through Canadian procurement every year. Less than 0.0005% reaches Black-owned businesses. This is not an accident. It is the result of decades of structural exclusion — no certification systems, no procurement pathways, no capital built for Black entrepreneurs.
You cannot fix a structural problem with charitable gestures. You need infrastructure. That is what BEBC Society builds.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
30 years of evidence.
The Black Business Initiative in Nova Scotia proved that dedicated Black business infrastructure works. Over 1,500 jobs created. Hundreds of businesses supported. A model that survived three decades because it was built on economic logic, not charitable impulse.
BEBC Society is that model at national scale. The methodology is the same. The geography is Canada. The goal is $1 billion redirected to Black-owned businesses.
STANDING ON SHOULDERS
30 years of proof.
Dr. Rustum Southwell founded the Black Business Initiative in Nova Scotia in 1996. For thirty years, BBI proved that when you build the right structures — certification, capital, community — Black businesses thrive. They create jobs. They build wealth. They anchor communities.
BEBC Society is BBI at national scale. Jackee Kasandy and Dr. Southwell share the same conviction: Black entrepreneurs don't need charity. They need economic architecture. The $1 billion goal is not ambition for ambition's sake — it is the number that represents what becomes possible when structural barriers are removed.
Every certification issued, every contract signed, every cohort graduated is proof that the infrastructure of Black economic power is being built.