Our Mission

Established in 2004, the North Carolina Minority Business Enterprise Center (NC MBEC) is a partnership program between the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development (IMED) and the U. S. Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). The North Carolina Minority Business Enterprise Center is dedicated to providing technical and financial assistance to existing and emerging minority business across the state.

Staff:

Farad Ali is the Senior Vice President of Business Development Mr. Ali leads a team of managerial and financial technical assistance consultants with MBA’s that focused on enhancing the internal controls and capacity of minority firms. He has been involved with securing millions of dollars in procurement and contracts for minority businesses around the state and is well respected by financial institutions as a catalyst of capital for minority businesses. Mr. Ali has over a decade of business development experience as a Banker, an undergraduate of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business with a concentration in finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Business Administration from Campbell University.

Crystal German is the Vice President and MBEC Program Director where she assists minority owned firm across the state in improving their financial performance and acquiring capital. Her most recent employment was in a similar role as a Senior Business Consultant with the NC Institute of Minority Economic Development where she worked with smaller businesses. Her career spans treasury and educational positions with both private and the public sector through several states in Southeastern U.S. Crystal graduated summa cum laude from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Business Administration and a minor in Public Relations. She earned her Masters of Business Administration at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School where she studied economic development models and ways to create wealth in the under served communities.

Dan Stafford serves as Director of Information, Technology & Compliance for the North Carolina Minority Business Enterprise Center (NC MBEC). He has been involved in MBDA's Minority Business Development Center program since 1983. Serving in various marketing consulting roles for the Fayetteville Minority Business Development Center and the Raleigh/Durham Minority Business Development Centers from 1983 to 1997, he later became Project Manager of the Raleigh/Durham Minority Business Development Center from 1997 to 2002 and proceeding to Project Director for the Raleigh/Durham/Charlotte Minority Business Development Center from 2002-2003. He has a Masters of Business Administration Degree (Concentration-Marketing) from Western Carolina University and a Bachelors of Arts Degree (Major-Sociology) from Appalachian State University.

Yolanda Brown is the Manager of Financial Certification for the North Carolina Minority Business Enterprise Center (NC MBEC) where she provides business and financial plan consultations as well as loan packaging to minority-owned firms. Additionally, she serves as the primary analyst for SBA 7(a) Pre-qualifications for women, minority, and veteran owned businesses throughout North Carolina. Prior to joining the Institute she served as a small business consultant while a student at UNC Kenan-Flagler's MBA program to various local businesses and ultimately started a business plan development consultancy for small businesses as a sole proprietor.

Yolanda has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School with dual concentrations in Marketing and Sustainable Enterprise, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.