Happy New Year! This week’s open thread will highlight the accomplishments of African-American female entrepreneurs.
Eunice Mosley was born in Selma, Alabama. She was the seventh of nine children born to Andrew M. Mosley, Sr. and Eva O. Murdoch Mosley.
Dr. Dudley is Co-Founder and Co-Owner of Dudley Products, Inc., the multi-million dollar hair care and cosmetics company headquarted in Kernersville, North Carolina. She currently serves as Chief Financial Officer for the company and is Managing Executive for the Dudley Cosmetology School System, a network of 8 general cosmetology schools in the United States.
She got her start in the beauty industry selling Fuller Products door-to-door in Brooklyn, New York while a student at Talladega College. It was at this Fuller branch in the summer of 1960 that she met her husband, Dr. Joe L. Dudley, Sr. Both were selling Fuller Products during the summer to earn their college tuition money. They married in 1961 and both began working for Fuller Products full-time in 1962.
In 1967, the Dudleys moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to open a Fuller Products Distributorship. Later, when Fuller Products Company experienced problems providing enough products to them, the Dudleys began making their own products to meet their customers needs. They would make the product in their family kitchen. Dr. Dudley and their children (at that time, two) packaged the products at night, and Joe Dudley, Sr. and his sales force would sell them during the day.
By 1976, she had helped developed a sales force of more than 400, a beauty school, and a chain of beauty supply stores located throughout the Southeast. Dudley Products was deemed an entrepreneurial success. The Dudleys moved to Chicago at the request of Mr. S. B. Fuller, their mentor and owner of Fuller Products Company. Joe was appointed President of Fuller Products Company and Eunice assumed a significant role in the administrative and manufacturing areas. It was during this time that her aptitude for purchasing, layout design and process efficiency really came to the surface.
1984 found the Dudleys back in Greensboro to grow Dudley Products Company. Their efforts were so successful that they soon needed significantly more operating space. Dr. Dudley worked closely with the architects on both the internal and external design of the building and selected all furnishings and equipment needed.
In 1989, with husband Joe, she helped launch Dudley Cosmetology University, flagship of the Dudley Cosmetology School System. The presence of DCU led to other significant planning and design accomplishments for Dr. Dudley, (DCU Inn, Dudley Cafeteria and the Yeates Convention Center).
The design, planning and building of Dudley Products, Inc.’s new manufacturing and home office facility in Kernersville, North Carolina were personally supervised by Dr. Dudley. These efforts earned her The Energy Efficient Building Award presented by Energy User News and the ASHRAE Technology Award, an International Award given for second place in recognizing outstanding achievements in design and operation of energy-efficient buildings.
Over the past 30 years through dedication, hard work and persistence, she has helped take the company from very humble beginnings to a respected and world renowned position in the Beauty Industry.
**Information courtesy of Wikipedia.org***