David L. Steward (born July 2, 1951) is an American billionaire businessman. He is chairman and founder of World Wide Technology, one of the largest African-American-owned businesses in America.
According to Forbes, in 2019 Steward was one of 13 black billionaires worldwide. He was ranked 239th on the Forbes 400 list of American billionaires in 2019
World Wide Technology
In 1990, Steward founded World Wide Technology, a systems integrator In 1993, WWT concentrated its focus on the implementation of enterprise wide imaging, conversion services, and telecommunication networks.
In 1999 World Wide Technology spun off its telecommunications division to form Telcobuy.com. Sales for the two companies continued to grow, although revenues slipped in 2002 as World Wide Technology felt the impact of the technology recession. In 2003 combined reported revenues passed $1 billion, and Steward formed World Wide Technology Holding Company as the parent company for the two firms.
World Wide Technology’s 2018 revenue is estimated to be greater than $11 billion, which would rank it as one of St. Louis‘ largest private companies.
David L. Steward is the Chairman and founder of World Wide Technology
- David Steward is the founder and chairman of IT provider World Wide Technology.
- In the early days, Steward sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed from the office parking lot.
- Today he is majority owner of the $14.5 billion (sales) company, whose customers include Citi, Verizon and the federal government.
- Net worth: $7.6 billion
- He grew up in the segregated South with seven siblings; his father worked as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector.
- Steward donated $1.3 million to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2018 to create the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies.
