"Early in life,"
says Bennie Wiley, "I learned an important guiding principle: look
for ways to exercise your values." As president and CEO of The
Partnership, an organization designed to open doors for minority
professionals in the city of Boston, Wiley knows first hand the
influence values can have. Growing up, Wiley and her sister Sharon
Pratt Kelly (who served as mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1991 to
1995) often heard their attorney father talk about the effect of his
work on the lives of others. "Obviously, who you become has a lot to
do with how you're raised," she observes. "My father taught us we
should make a contribution in some way and that responsibility comes
along with success."
At The Partnership since 1991, Wiley leads an organization that helps minorities gain access to the city's corporate power structure and encourages them to become involved in civic and cultural affairs. Working with area companies and institutions, The Partnership facilitates interactions among current and emerging leaders and provides opportunities for individuals to share their knowledge and skills to bring about change in the workplace and in their communities. Wiley is widely respected for bringing new life and direction to the program, which was started in the 1970s at the time of Boston's school busing crisis.
In her work, Wiley draws on her own experiences pursuing a consulting career and starting a family in Boston during that divisive decade. As an African American, she remembers feeling "isolated" when she and her husband, well-known Boston attorney Fletcher ("Flash") Wiley, came to the city for graduate school - she at HBS and he at Harvard Law School. But the couple stayed on to launch their respective careers and, hoping to become part of a resurgent black middle class in Boston, purchased a home in the city's Roxbury neighborhood. "It was the ultimate '60s dream," Wiley says with a smile. "After college, we were committed to going back to the community and working from the inside to make a difference."
Throughout her career, she has endeavored to remain true to that '60s idealism. If coaxed, Wiley, whose children Pratt and B.J. are now 21 and 19, will admit she has become a role model for many of the young women she meets in her work, who look to her for guidance not only in making a mark in Boston's business community but also in juggling the demands of a family and a career. "I always tell them not to be afraid to take risks," she says. "I really believe you should do what feels right at each stage of your life, and if you give 100 percent of yourself it will all come together." She has clearly followed her own advice. When her children were young, Wiley was a pioneer in negotiating a flexible schedule for her public policy consulting work with Urban Systems Research and Engineering. "Of course, as a working parent, any choice you make is demanding," she cautions, remembering late nights of research and writing after her kids were in bed.
Wiley also encourages young minorities to think carefully about the "legacy" they want to leave. "Our generation gained access to corporate America," she notes, "but the next frontier is to create wealth in ways that will have a collective impact on the African-American community."
After a quarter of a century spent working to level the playing field for people of color in Boston's professional circles, Wiley's optimism remains intact. "We've got a long way to go," she allows, "but I think we've made enormous strides as a country. You see evidence of it every day."
by Mary Ellen Gardner
