Oprah Winfrey has been ranked the richest and most philanthropic black person of the 20th century, and she’s considered by some to be the most influential woman in the world. According to the June issue of Black Enterprise, which hits stands June 3, she is also the world’s most influential black entrepreneur.
On Friday, Oprah’s Harpo Inc. was named the 2008 BE100s Company of the Year. According to a press release, “She is a legend, an icon—but mostly, a mentor. Her unprecedented success in American business serves as the undisputed blueprint for many minority entrepreneurs. Her leadership has broken down barriers; her business instinct the stuff of legend; and her innovation unprecedented. She has spent her entire career beating the odds—and has inspired millions of business-minded minorities in the process.”

In Black Enterprise’s June cover feature, “Oprah Means Business,” Oprah talks about the winning formula that has taken Harpo from a five-person production company to a 430-employee multimedia conglomerate that grossed $345 million last year. She also explains that, “Treating people with respect is the most important thing to me. It’s not just talk. I don’t yell at people, I don’t mistreat people, I don’t talk down to people. So no one else in this building, in this vicinity, has the right to do it.”

Her show’s distribution contract ends in 2011, but Oprah is looking forward to her OWN network and promises that it will be more expansive than anything she’s ever developed: “My intention is for it to live beyond me, for it to be a living network of possibilities for people in their own lives,” she explains. “To be able to say that my life was used in service, to help people come to their highest potential—I would do it even if my name wasn’t attached to it.”

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