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Janice Bryant Howroyd was born on September 1, 1952, in Tarboro, North Carolina as the 4th of 11 children. She moved to Los Angeles, California in 1976 and started the ActOne Group in 1978 with a $900 loan from her mother.

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Janice Bryant Howroyd earned her bachelor's Degree in English while attending NC A&T University on a full scholarship. She also earned her Master's from the University of Maryland and her Doctorate from N.C. State University.

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Before starting her company, Janice Bryant Howroyd worked as a temporary secretary at Billboard magazine. She got the job through her brother-in-law, Tom Noonan. That job introduced her to celebrities, business executives, and workplace diversity.

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Janice Bryant Howroyd and Bernard Howroyd

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Janice Bryant Howroyd has been married to her husband Bernard Howroyd for 42 years. Bernard Howroyd is the founder of AppleOne Employment Service which he started in 1964. They have 2 children together, Brett Howroyd who is the President of Apple One, and a daughter Kathryn Howroyd who heads ActOne Group's branding efforts.

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The ActOne Group is a global company. The company is the largest privately held, women and minority-owned workforce management company in the U.S. It has over 2,600 employees operating in 33 countries around the world and they have over 17,000 clients. That's a long way from when the company first started in an old rug shop in Beverly Hills with a fax machine and a phone.

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Janice Bryant Howroyd's life experiences helped shape her business because she had a strong support system in her family and community. Janice learned a lot of lessons throughout her life one of those being failure is never an option for her. Also to never compromises who she is personally to get ahead in her business.

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Janice Bryant Howroyd is recognized as the first black woman to operate and found a billion-dollar company. She has traveled the globe giving impactful speeches to different communities about the importance of education.

She was also appointed to the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Barack Obama in 2016. And she was the first ever BET Honors entrepreneur of the year.

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In the beginning, Janice Bryant Howroyd struggled because she didn't have the technology we have now. All she had when she first started was a phone and a phonebook. Also, the fact that she was an African American woman didn't help the challenges she faced along with the everyday struggles of starting a business in a sector dominated by white men. But she never gave up and she was committed to having a company with diversity and inclusion. She also made sure to prioritize her relationships with her clients to help her company be successful.