Strategy for growth: Jackson builds on strong corporate, federal business to expand nationally

After years away for college and work, Laurita Jackson returned to Memphis to be closer to family and raise her children in the South.

She moved home in 2003 to work for the family business, Memphis Chemical & Janitorial Supply Company, and took over as president in the beginning of May, bringing aboard a commitment to her employees and community.

"It's great working for a family business," Jackson said. "One of the things that allows us to make it work is we have a saying, 'We do what's best for the enterprise,' and that allows us to make the right decisions for the company, and also maintain our family relationships."

Memphis Chemical is a distributor of janitorial supplies, cleaning chemicals and cleaning equipment, in addition to servicing that cleaning equipment. Distribution ranges from throughout the city to nationally for some FedEx facilities and customers in the federal government such as the departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs.

"We are locally based but we do have the capability to ship nationwide, and we do that," she said.

The company was founded in 1968 by Ed Porter as a supplier of cleaning chemicals to churches. Bought in 2000 by Jackson's father, George Brown, and her brother, Hank Brown, the focus was expanded to include other, more corporate facilities, and eventually grew into an $8-million-a-year concern.

Jackson, 46, received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Howard University and an MBA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. From Michigan, she moved to Rochester, N.Y., and worked for Xerox, a company that just last summer named Ursula Burns as CEO, the first African-American female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

"I admire her leadership style," Jackson said of Burns. "Straightforward and to the point, she has bold plans for growth and taking the company to a new level."

As an electrical engineer, Jackson brings an analytical mindset to approaching problems and her goal as president is to expand the company's reach even further into the national scene.

"We definitely want to continue to grow our federal business," she said. "There's a lot of opportunity with the federal government, we've made good inroads in that area but there's plenty of opportunity we want to pursue."

She is proud of the work done and of winning the Quality Cup Award from the Memphis Regional Chamber and its Mid-South Quality Productive Center for 2009, putting the 17-employee company in a league with Methodist Healthcare and Rhodes College.

She's equally as proud of the company culture she has worked to foster, focusing on the whole person and the credo "healthy, wealthy and wise."

"We really promote health among our team members and stress the importance of taking care of ourselves physically and financially," she said. "We bring in speakers for lunch and learn to stress the total person and the health of our people; it's professional and personal development."

Laurita Jackson

Title: President, Memphis Chemical & Janitorial Supply Company

Education: Howard University, bachelor's in electrical engineering; University of Michigan, MBA

Family: Husband, Darryl; three children

Interests: Spending time with family, avid tennis player, reading, traveling, local cultural events

Civic involvement: Ronald McDonald House, Richland Elementary PTA