From Manilla to Wall Street: An Immigrant's Journey With America's First Black Tycoon

From Butch Meily, trusted public relations strategist to Reginald Lewis, the history-making African American Mergers & Acquisitions dealmaker, comes an eye-opening business narrative. “From Manila to Wall Street” tells two stories: the first includes daring corporate takeovers, an exorbitant global lifestyle, and the fatal brain tumor that claimed Lewis’s life at age 50. Lewis struggled to reach the top, only to see his attempt to become the first African American-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange fail and his Hamptons mansion burn to the ground. The second story is that of a young Filipino immigrant at Lewis’s side. Meily reaches the highest tier of corporate public relations in New York, making a million dollars in one year. Yet, after his wife leaves him, Meily discovers that power, glory, and riches can bring loneliness and isolation. He began his relationship with Lewis as an employee and became his closest adviser and first-hand witness to the tormented, solitary man behind the image of a wildly successful takeover king.