Ron Langston

President George W. Bush appointed Ronald N. Langston to serve as the National Director of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), March 2001 to January 2009. He is the first individual to hold the title National Director and is the longest serving Director in the history of the Agency. He directed the MBDA through a reorganization and transformation from a bureaucratic and administrative agency to an entrepreneurial organization. In 2008, MBDA was recognized as one of the top three agencies in the U.S. Department of Commerce and received the highest ranking in leadership. 

Highlights of prior public, private and non-profit experience includes: Vice President, Organizational and Administrative Management, EMCO, Manufacturing, Commercial Real Estate Representative, Director, Economic Development, Institute for Social and Economic Development, Director, National Markets, Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa. Vice President, Governmental Affairs, Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation. Special Assistant, Office of Secretary, Congressional Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Legislative Assistant, U.S. Senate. Legislative Research Analyst, Iowa General Assembly. 

International experience and travel includes Africa, Europe, Caribbean, Australia and Canada. Official delegate to Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), conference at Mauritius (2002) and Senegal (2005). Official travel to Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Botswana, South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durbin), Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, Arusha, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. Delegate, American Council of Young Political Leaders, (ACYPL), to West Germany, France, NATO, Brussels, Belgium. Travel includes official visits to Spain (Madrid and Segovia), and Sydney, Australia to establish business-to-business linkages between the Minority Business Development Agency and the Export Club of Spain and between Aboriginal entrepreneurs.

Upon leaving government service in January 2009, Langston established Langston Global Enterprises, (LGE), LLC, an entrepreneurial and business innovations consulting firm. LGE will focus on business-to-business relations between U.S. businesses and the strategic pursuit of business relationships between Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa, Caribbean nations and Pacific Islanders through the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Millennium Challenge Accounts and U.S. Free Trade Agreements. 

Langston is the recipient of numerous awards and citations. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa, City University of New York, and Harvard University. He is a member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and a fraternal member of Omega Psi and Phi and Sigma Pi Phi Boule. He is married to Inga P. Bumbary, Esq. of Washington, D.C.