Founder of Dubb Value Creation Jonathan Wilson has overcome personal struggles to find success as a Black business owner in West Hollywood. (photo courtesy of Jonathan Wilson)

To celebrate Black History Month, the Beverly Press is shining a spotlight on some of the Black leaders in our community. Each week in February, we will look at an individual who is forging their own, remarkable path.

Jonathan Wilson is one of the only Black CEOs in West Hollywood, and his road to this position has come after personal hardship and lessons in work-life balance. As the founder of Dubb Value Creation, a business and consulting company, Wilson also served on West Hollywood’s Social Justice Task Force.

“Dubb Value Creation [is] a management consulting firm primarily focused on mergers and acquisitions transaction advisory, providing assistance at every phase of the transaction mostly for companies with revenues below $500 million,” Wilson said. “In addition, because I love the Fortune 500 world, we continue to provide strategic advisory services for select organizations.”

Born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Wilson grew up in Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills and now calls West Hollywood home.

“I grew up never wanting to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “Both of my parents were entrepreneurs at one point in their lives, and I saw the struggle and benefits first hand. I liked the idea of a steady paycheck, benefits and the corporate meritocracy dream. I learned so much from the leaders that mentored and sponsored me at Accenture, Countrywide Financial, Bank of America, Deloitte Consulting and Grant Thornton. However, I felt this undeniable weight of being the highest ranked Black LGBTQ leader in my various organizations while also trying to climb the corporate ladder and over time, the idea of being an entrepreneur became more appealing.”

Wilson launched his firm in 2017, a task he said is “not for the meek.”

“I had confidence that my knowledge and experience from the corporate world would propel me. I had been working two jobs my entire career, one focused on being the best in my industry and the second one focused on lifting up Black people within every organization where I was employed. The second one is what gave me fatigue,” he said.

Wilson said that coming out added an extra struggle to his process. He lived in New York City for several years, going through intense therapy while continuing to struggle with a lack of familial support and trying to ignore derogatory slurs and even physical attacks because of his sexuality.

“During one of my therapy sessions in 2016, my therapist asked the question about these family members, ‘What if they never change?’ I was blown away and had never even considered that to be an option. As things got worse, I realized that I needed to move back to Los Angeles and work on either saving these relationships or determining that I needed to move on. This decision to move was purely personal and happened to be in year two of my business, 2019 … After an awful conversation with one of my sisters, I finally made the decision in early 2019 to demote 18 family members to ‘blood relative’ status because they could not support me as an LGBTQ person.”

Wilson’s full struggle to find acceptance is detailed on his podcast “Redefining Family,” which is available on most podcast platforms.

In 2020, Wilson was chosen to help lead West Hollywood’ Social Justice Task Force, which has worked to improve social and racial equity within the city.

“When people used to meet me, the first assumption was that I came from a poor family. I’ve been told to go back to where I come from, ‘downtown L.A. or wherever you people live.’ Yes, Los Angeles is no exception to racial bigotry. It’s only in recent years that bar owners in West Hollywood started revisiting how they treat their patrons of color. Of the business owners in West Hollywood that I interact with, I am consistently one of very few, for profit, Black business owners and definitely the only Black LGBTQ business owner. Black people make up 4% of the residents that live in West Hollywood and experience homelessness at a much higher rate than any other race. We have some real issues in the city that involve race. Despite what some local politicians have said, it’s not racist to talk about race just like it’s not sexist to talk about gender or sexual orientation,” he said. At the Jan. 23 City Council meeting, Wilson spoke during the public comment period, asking for progress on initiatives the task force had laid out.

“I want an accountable individual responsible for each of the Social Justice Task Force recommendations, presented in October of last year … we need to focus on economic development that uplifts people of all identities. Ultimately, we can measure progress from those that you see at the top. We still don’t have a Black city council member and I’m currently the only Black for profit CEO in the city. The focus needs to be placed on attracting more existing and successful BIPOC entrepreneurs to West Hollywood while helping to grow current community members so that they can become successful entrepreneurs or corporate leaders one day. With a focus on increasing wealth for BIPOC people, we will reduce challenges with people experiencing homelessness and housing affordability,” he said.

While growth remains a work-in-progress, though, Wilson said he’d like people to honor Black businesses and events during Black History Month.

“Not only will you be helping with economic prosperity for our current and future leaders, but you may learn something. Black history leads to a Black future, which will ultimately lift up our society as a whole,” Wilson said.