From Manila to Wall Street - An Immigrant’s Journey With America’s First Black Tycoon
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View ContentMy memoir, "From Manila to Wall Street - An Immigrant’s Journey With America’s First Black Tycoon," is about one man’s fight against racism, a wrenching and honest love story where the protagonist does not get the girl, and a saga of American business at the end of the century when large corporations were gobbled up by people who no one had ever heard of, all with borrowed money.
One black life did matter years ago. With the world changing before our eyes, I thought it would be both timely and topical for a book telling two stories. The first is about Reginald Lewis, a hard-charging black businessman who bid a billion dollars for Beatrice International in 1987, won the auction despite the odds but died at the age of 50. Set in the New York and Paris of the '80s and '90s when hostile takeovers targeted big companies, the book recounts his struggle to reach the top, only to see his attempt to become the first African American-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange foiled and his Hamptons mansion burned to the ground. He pushes his way into the ownership of a Fifth Avenue apartment at a time when blacks were not allowed to live there, then dies a month after moving in.
The second story is my journey as a young Filipino immigrant at Reg's side as a Nick Carraway-type character to his Gatsby. I make it to the big-time corporate life in New York, only to discover after my wife leaves me that power, glory and riches can bring loneliness and isolation and that true happiness and fulfillment lies in helping others. After I return to the Philippines, I find myself leading a disaster foundation that battles a super typhoon, war and the Covid virus.
Reviews
Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
The high stakes world of financial dealmaking during the Reagan era sparkles to life
The high stakes world of financial dealmaking during the Reagan era sparkles to life in this behind-the-scenes memoir by one who was there to survive it and tell the tale.
Booklife of Publishers Weekly
Readers drawn to rags-to-riches stories, business memoirs, or narratives of overcoming adversity will find Meily’s account deeply rewarding.
In this inspiring memoir, Meily recounts his extraordinary journey alongside pioneering businessman Reginald Lewis, the first Black American to own a billion-dollar company. As Lewis battles systemic racism and overcomes immense obstacles to acquire Beatrice International through a leveraged buyout, public relations specialist Meily stands at his side, navigating the media and high-stakes strategy with grit and loyalty. An immigrant from the Philippines, Meily shares his own remarkable ascent—from modest beginnings to financial stability—while reflecting on the cost of success, including long hours, relentless travel, and a strained marriage.
Despite Lewis’s demanding and sometimes abrasive nature, Meily remembers him with deep respect and affection, offering arresting, firsthand details of boardroom drama, press relations, and Lewis’s final days. From Manila to Wall Street is more than a tale of business acumen; it’s a moving dual portrait of ambition and friendship in the pressure cooker of 1980s corporate America. Meily vividly captures the era’s wild financial world and the deep-seated barriers Lewis and he both worked to dismantle as men of color forging a path at the highest levels of power.
Readers drawn to rags-to-riches stories, business memoirs, or narratives of overcoming adversity will find Meily’s account deeply rewarding. Themes of sacrifice, perseverance, and cross-cultural partnership run throughout, as Meily reflects on leaving his family behind in the Philippines in pursuit of the American dream—and on the personal and professional legacy of the man who changed his life.
Takeaway: A moving, insider memoir of business, ambition, and friendship with trailblazer Reginald Lewis.
Comparable Titles: Reginald Lewis’s Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?, Shomari Wills’s Black Fortunes.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Kirkus Reviews
A public relations expert and philanthropist shares stories from his relationship with Black entrepreneur Reginald Lewis.
“I have made a living by attaching myself to powerful people and found it to be a profitable pursuit,” writes Meily in the book’s opening lines. And while his close confidants as a public relations expert and entrepreneur include prime ministers and high-profile CEOs, no one is closer to his heart than Reginald Lewis, at one time the richest Black businessman in America, with whom the author worked for six years. Meily likens Lewis, the head of TLC Beatrice International Holdings (a billion-dollar company whose brands included Tropicana, Samsonite luggage, and Avis, among others) to the sun, “around whom all of us minor planets revolved.” Working closely with Lewis during the Reagan era of deregulation and corporate extravagance, the author’s account illuminates the life of one of the period’s most well-known, ostentatious, and aggressive businessmen. While private jets and corporate intrigue take center stage, the book also offers an intimate look at the personal side of one of the most successful Black entrepreneurs of all time. Meily paints Lewis as a man of “intensity” who was full of “rage” when things didn’t work out according to plan, but also as a man who had a softer side, as evidenced by his philanthropic work and support of Black higher education. Telling Lewis’ story, Meily also details his own
personal pursuit of the American Dream as he recounts his early life in Manila and distinguished academic record at the University of Florida. (Like Lewis, a fellow Catholic, the author emphasizes the role of faith in guiding his own philanthropic work.) Written in an engaging style with a text that comes in at fewer than 200 total pages, the book provides a rare glimpse into the lives of racial minorities in a white-dominated corporate space. Including a wealth of photographs, this work evocatively captures the glitz and glamor of the Reagan years. The personality of entrepreneur Reg Lewis leaps from the page in this memoir from his former confidant.
Ken Fisher, founder, executive chairman and co-chief investment officer of Fisher Investments
Butch Meily’s engaging new book, From Manila to Wall Street is a ... lifearama, beating any MBA curriculum in learning to be a greater-than-better, visionary, trailblazing business head
Butch Meily’s engaging new book, From Manila to Wall Street is a ... lifearama, beating any MBA curriculum in learning to be a greater-than-better, visionary, trailblazing business head—also how to communicate about it. Gravitas and style can’t be beat. The Reginald Lewis story beats that of almost any entrepreneur any place, anywhere.
Bob Guccione Jr., renowned editor and publisher
Reginald Lewis was a complex, larger-than-life, pioneering legend among Black entrepreneurs.
Reginald Lewis was a complex, larger-than-life, pioneering legend among Black entrepreneurs. He broke through all the ceilings. And Butch's remarkable book very entertainingly shows us just how he did that.
Chris Atkins, Former Managing Director, Corporate Practice, Ogilvy Public Relations, Former Vice President, Corporate Communications, Standard & Poor's, former Managing Director, Public Relations, PricewaterhouseCoopers
I worked with Butch Meily and he has captured a moment in time in this thrilling and humorous memoir about his masterful management of Reg Lewis’s profile
I worked with Butch Meily and he has captured a moment in time in this thrilling and humorous memoir about his masterful management of Reg Lewis’s profile from the unprecedented leveraged buyout of Beatrice Foods International to Lewis’s untimely death. I was grateful to see it all and recommend this terrific read.
Loida Nicolas Lewis, Chair of The Reginald F Lewis Foundation and former CEO of Tlc Beatrice International
Butch Meily is the quintessential Bud Fox of the movie "Wall Street" a brilliant and ambitious participant in the high stakes game of thé 1980’s
Butch Meily is the quintessential Bud Fox of the movie « Wall Street » a brilliant and ambitious participant in the high stakes game of thé 1980’s. In the process, he lost perspective of what really matters in his life. He finds redemption in serving his people hit by disasters. So his story continues.
Richard V. Croghan is a retired educator and former Associate Dean at the University of New Mexico
As a great literary piece, it also reflects on the true meaning and purpose of life.
This memoir introduces you to the world of business and big mergers. As a great literary piece, it also reflects on the true meaning and purpose of life. It is written with clarity and honesty. The reader will find his life enriched by this book.
Kurt Kent, Professor Emeritus - University of Florida
From Manila to Wall Street and Back lays bare the triumph and tragedy of a meteoric rise to the top of the business world during the end of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of the Twenty-First.
From Manila to Wall Street and Back lays bare the triumph and tragedy of a meteoric rise to the top of the business world during the end of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of the Twenty-First. The endless days, the trans-Atlantic dashes, the shouting and verbal abuse ... accompanied by fabulous dinners, stays at the best hotels, unbelievable salaries ... in the end added up to great sadness. The author learned well his lessons about love and life, but learned them too late to save what was most precious. All the years of helping the leading black entrepreneur run an enormous international corporation were viewed in a new light following his leader's early death. Experience the lows and highs of an amazing journey from a young international student at a huge U.S. university to trusted No. 2 at an enormous cross-national enterprise. And at the end, share the author's deep satisfaction at his new, all-absorbing passion: helping those who have fallen victim to the ills imposed by nature.
WRITING
This is a story of lost love, of friendships formed, and American business at the turn of the century.
Gallery
Butch with PR guru Harold Burson
Meily family in the 1960s at their home in Loyola Heights, Quezon City; from left to right - Butch, Finina, Jim, Rose and Tess with Anita Meily holding on to Susan.
Butch Meily with Reg Lewis in Germany
TLC Beatrice board meeting in Paris with Meily seen in the background at the Crillon hotel (Taken from the book "Why Should White Guys Have All The Fun")
RFL-TLC-JET-MEILY
Butch Meily with Jean Pierre Tegnet, who worked with Reg Lewis closely, at the Palais du Bourbon apartment in Paris.