Some people only dream of entrepreneurial success, while some wake up, pray, and work productively to make it happen. For David L. Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT), the nation’s largest Black-owned business with a reported $17 billion in annual revenue in 2023, the work of success has been rooted in his unwavering faith in God, continuous prayers, and the reading and application of numerous biblical scriptures.
Since its inception in 1990, WWT, with its Global Headquarters in Maryland Heights, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, has become a national and international giant for providing hardware, software, networking, AI, and cybersecurity strategies and services to help companies and organizations grow through sharing, distributing, organizing, and analyzing information to make the right technological decisions in effective and efficient manners.
While WWT is America’s largest Black-owned business, Forbes ranks it as the country’s 23rd largest private company – Black or White owned – in 2024. Other rankings by Forbes include WWT listed as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For (13 times), Best Employers for New Grads (No. 17), Best Employers for Diversity (No. 379), and America’s Best Midsize Employers (No.92).
“I am grateful for the blessings of God on my life, my family, and WWT,” Steward said in a recent company newsletter. “As I think about our humble beginnings as a company – just five people in a small office space – I stand amazed at what has been done and give Him all the glory and honor!
Born in Chicago, but raised in Clinton, Missouri, a town of about 10,000 at the time, Steward and his seven siblings had a front-row seat to poverty and racial discrimination. Yet, while his father and mother struggled to make ends meet amid racial bigotry in the 1950s into the ‘60s, Steward recalled learning many virtues about life, most of which stemmed from the Bible, his strong church upbringing, and the spiritual faith he learned to have in God at all times.
“I saw faith in action,” Steward told this writer in an exclusive interview with Who’s Who in Black St. Louis several years ago. “I saw my mother giving her last dollar to the church. I knew it was a seed to be sown with the expectation of a harvest. These principles of sowing and reaping have stayed with me for my entire life.”
With dreams of one day owning a business despite growing up in poverty and racism, young Steward knew that education, through God’s grace and favor, would be the key to pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business management from Central Missouri State University, Steward held senior-level management positions with companies such as Wagner Electric, Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Federal Express.
In 1984, Steward took a quantum leap of entrepreneurial faith to start Transportation Business Specialists, which audited and reviewed freight bills and overcharges for the rail industry. In 1987, Steward founded Transport Administrative Services, three years before launching WWT, with little money and a raging Gulf War threatening to impact America’s economy.
However, against the odds, Steward grew WWT, drawing on God’s help and biblical principles found in the Bible. Refusing to keep the biblical principles a secret, Steward, in the same year of starting his company, penned the book Doing Business by the Good Book – 52 Lessons on Success Straight from the Bible. In 2020, Steward also wrote Leadership by the Good Book: Timeless Principles for Making an Eternal Impact.
Today, 35 years after launching WWT, Steward continues to expand his company with faith-based business approaches and values-driven leadership. WWT currently has a business presence in close to 20 states. Internationally, the company has operations in dozens of countries, including England, the Netherlands, Poland, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
“With thousands of IT engineers, hundreds of application developers and unmatched labs for test and deploying technology at scale, WWT helps customers bridge the gap between IT and the business,” said Forbes Editor. “While most companies talk about delivering business and technology outcomes, WWT does it.”
It appears that having faith in God, applying biblical principles, and engaging in continuous prayers have been triumphant for Steward because, according to Forbes and reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February (Black History Month) 2024, Steward is the second richest Black person in America with $7.6 Billion.
One of the hundreds of scriptures that Steward stands on wherever WWT does business is Proverbs 16:3: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” This verse, taken to and through God in prayer, has become a cornerstone of Steward’s approach to the daily business decisions involving operations, contracts and employees.
“I love my employees,” said Steward of the company’s 10,000-plus workers. “And I show them through my actions. I’m blessed to be a blessing, and serving others and doing good for others are the bottom lines. As the founder and chairman of WWT, my job is, always has been, and will be to serve the men and women who work here and help them succeed.”
Steward, a devout philanthropist. said that the spiritual roots of WWT go beyond the employees.
“This is not something we only practice internally,” Steward said. “When our people are respected, and yes, loved, it permeates through the organization and out the door to our customers, vendors, and others across the globe.”
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