Keep Going No Matter What: The Reginald F. Lewis Legacy: 20 Years Later
LOIDA LEWIS
After his death, Loida served as Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, Inc. She won over the business community by moving quickly to increase earnings and pay down debt. In 1995, she was on the cover of Working Woman magazine as the “Top Businesswoman in America.” After running the company, she completed the sale of TLC Beatrice, achieving a 35% internal rate of return on investment.
Loida is now Chair and CEO of TLC Beatrice, LLC, a family investment firm. A lawyer by profession, she was the first Filipino woman to pass the New York Bar without attending law school in the United States.
Loida Nicolas Lewis served for ten years as General Attorney with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and co-authored the best-seller, How to Get a Green Card, now in its 10th edition.
A leader in the Filipino-American community, she is one of the founders of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund, the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance, organized after the election of Benigno Simeon Aquino III as President of the Philippines.
A well-regarded philanthropist, in 1998 Loida funded the People’s Alternative Livelihood Foundation of Sorsogon Inc. in her hometown. The foundation has since helped lift 20,000 families out of poverty. She succeeded her husband as Chair of the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, which has given millions of dollars to educational and cultural institutions. Loida was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Reporter, an independent news organization with a global reach, and the Apollo Theater Foundation. She speaks Filipino, English, French, and Spanish.
Loida has two daughters, both cum laude B.A. graduates of Harvard University. Leslie is an actor and playwright, having written “Miracle in Rwanda.” Christina, after a five-year stint with the Wall Street Journal, is a journalist and author of the best-selling Lonely at the Top. Loida has three grandchildren, Christian, Savilla, and Calvin, and two sons-in-law, Gavin Sword and Dan Halpern.