Naomi D. Brown
Coach | Entrepreneur | Trainer
About Naomi
Naomi Brown is a highly sought after hospitality industry executive whose first company, STAR Enterprises, Inc. provides facilities, janitorial, construction, and staffing services to 19 luxury boutique hotels (including Marriott, Hilton, Kimpton, and Starwood properties) and commercial construction businesses across the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. She also owns Her Corner. A community that provides techniques for female founders to grow and operate their business through the power of collective intelligence.
She brings over 15 years of operations, financial management, and human resources knowledge to each client relationship as she guarantees “performances not promises”. Her work ethic can best be summed up as, “patience, persistence, and perspiration”.
Education
DC Public Schools (Bunker Hill Elementary, Alice Deal Junior High, & School Without Walls Senior High Schools)
Spelman College (BA)
University of Phoenix (MBA)
Georgetown University (MWAA Small Business Certificate)
Howard University (ECDC Diversity Coach Certification)
Career
Upon graduating from Spelman, Naomi desired to make a mark in corporate America. Her experiences at IBM, Jones Day Law Firm, JP Morgan Chase and The MONY Group in sales, financial planning, and internal consultation, all served as great training grounds for closing the deal and remaining confident in the expertise you offer. But still she found herself eager to make a greater impact on the lives of others.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, Naomi channeled her energy and expertise into real estate investment within the decimated southern region. 25 houses across the lower 9th Ward, Chalmette, and Metairie areas saw post-Katrina reconstruction under Naomi’s direction. She continued her interest in community development, dividing her time between the Crescent City and Atlanta, GA, investing development into over 50 properties across the metropolitan area through the Keystone Real Estate Investment Corporation.
Hospitality
Yet again, Naomi wrestled with how to lead greater impact on the lives of others. She aspired to create jobs for hard workers who often face obstacles to full-time salaried employment opportunities including language barriers, citizenship challenges, criminal records, and limited formal education. It was then that STAR Enterprises was born some 9 years ago. Marrying Naomi’s heart for people and innate ability to solve challenging workforce and staffing problems, STAR employs over 100 hospitality attendants deployed into critical roles throughout the East Coast. STAR’s approach to staff development is innovating the temporary hotel management industry as a greater number of properties find sustained success with STAR placements. STAR is a proud woman and minority-owned, 8(a) SBA LDBE CBE certified business. Its valuable past non-hotel clientele has included the DC Department of Employment Services, Department of Veteran Affairs, Department of Defense (U.S. Army), and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority.
Naomi joins her fellow gladiator, author Amanda Miller Littlejohn at the Her Impact DC Event
Advocacy
Under her bold leadership, STAR invests in DC residents, and the communities in which they reside, by participating with Project Empowerment and One City One Hire transitional programs. Naomi joined forces with these initiatives to continue on her mission of helping residents who face multiple barriers to employment gain work. Naomi counts it as a service to her community and a vital component of economic development to empower such individuals.
Recently, Naomi graduated from the prestigious Project 500 business development program (now 1863 Ventures) and was invited to Capitol Hill for the HBCU Roundtable, a conversation encouraging greater investment in historically black colleges and universities (of which she is a product) and praising the impact HBCU attendance has had on the amount of small business ownership within the African-American community.
Naomi with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee at the Congressional Hearing On HBCUs
In addition to running STAR, Naomi regularly invests her time, talents, and finances into advisory board memberships (Career Technical Institute, GOOD Projects, and 44 For Life Cardiac Arrest Awareness Organization) as well as into DC area youth.