Julius Walls

Julius Walls – President, Greater Centennial Development Corporation and Pastor, Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, Yonkers, NY

Julius Walls, Jr. is CEO of Greyston Bakery and senior vice president of Greyston Foundation. Walls is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he teaches social enterprise, and at Bainbridge Graduate Institute near Seattle, where he teaches social justice and business.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Walls attended high school and college seminary before pursuing a career in business. He studied business at Baruch College and completed his degree at Concordia College. After beginning his career at an accounting firm, he joined a chocolate manufacturing company and at age twenty-six was appointed vice president of operations. In 1992, he founded his own chocolate company, Sweet Roots, Inc. which sells the only chocolate bar using exclusively African cocoa and produced by an African- American.

Walls worked with Greyston Bakery to bring its cakes and tarts to the White House in 1993. In 1995, he joined Greyston as a marketing consultant and in November 1997 became CEO of the Bakery, adding vice president of Greyston Foundation in January 2000. A core ingredient of Walls’s life and career is his spiritual practice. He encourages employees to actively bring their whole selves to work, including their cultural and spiritual selves.