A CERTAIN KIND OF GENIUS
I am on, as we so often are these days, a Zoom call. I sit on the board of a new think tank that supports global entrepreneurship, the nonprofit arm of a just-founded holding company, and we are gathered for our first real meeting. After an hour and a half of throat clearing and blue-sky babble from the pixelated sea of largely European male faces—industrialists, scions of well-to-do families, lifetime diplomats, even former heads of state—an African American woman commands the call. The 50 or so heads in 50 or so Zoom tiles are replaced with a full-screen view of Phyllis Newhouse, the charismatic mentor, board member, founder, multiyear Inc. 5000 honoree, and now SPAC CEO, who speaks clearly, concisely, and good naturedly, and in just 90 seconds brushes aside the…