Born in Lafayette, LA, Christopher Hilliard is an author, entrepreneur, certified diversity professional, and college professor, all of which, none are more precious than his roles as a girl dad to his beautiful daughters and husband to his amazing wife. After finishing up at the University of Louisiana — Lafayette, where he primarily studied mass communications, Chris moved to Baton Rouge and later graduated from Southern University’s Master’s in Business Administration program. While in graduate school, Chris co-founded a tech start-up company called Suds Laundry Services, which is an on-demand app that provides pickup and delivery laundry and dry cleaning services.

After receiving his MBA, Chris went on to work as a Human Resources professional for one of the nation’s top health insurance providers. While there, Mr. Hilliard worked in the areas of talent acquisition, diversify, equity, and inclusion, as well as corporate strategy and business development. After establishing his business, releasing a book, and gaining corporate experience, Chris chose to leave the workplace to become a full-time entrepreneur, and to ultimately live out his purpose. Aside from winning a $10,000 investment prize for Suds in May and becoming named a top prize winner in Pharrell Williams’s national Black Ambition Prize — a program focused on the inequities that exist in regard to venture capital invested in black and brown businesses — in November of this year, where he secured a $75,000 investment. Mr. Hilliard just recently acquired a laundromat in North Baton Rouge this past June. He was also named as an honoree of Baton Rouge Business Report’s Class of 2024 40 Under 40. As a professor in Southern University’s college of business, Chris teaches entrepreneurship, management, and marketing strategy. Each day he’s striving to lead and leave an achieving legacy.