How Trell Thomas Built A Global Movement Celebrating Black Innovation

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 08: Trell Thomas speaks onstage during the Black Excellence Brunch Proudly Supported by Disney on February 08, 2025 in Glendale, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Disney)

Getty Images for Disney

With a table of flowers neatly placed in the corner and guests dressed in all white entering one by one, the Black Excellence Brunch AfroTech Edition was in full effect.

This iteration of the Black Excellence Brunch, held in a warehouse district with the Houston skyline as its backdrop brought together executives, engineers, creatives, and community leaders for an October afternoon dedicated to celebrating innovation, uplifting leadership, and offering encouragement to a room full of people who fuel the moxie behind American culture.

“This brunch was a reminder that innovation without inclusion isn’t progress,” Trell Thomas, founder of the Black Excellence Brunch, said in an interview.

Although the brunch was founded in 2017, its cultural relevance feels even more urgent today, as companies, organizations, and the federal government roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and civil rights protections that have long served communities facing discrimination and bigotry.

With the brunch acting as a space for literally and figuratively “giving flowers” to those representing the best of the Black community, its expansion comes at a time when 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs.

This makes the celebration of Black excellence more essential than ever.

Reflecting on the Houston AfroTech brunch, Thomas said, “Our goal is to ensure that as the future unfolds — through AI, data, and design — Black voices, stories, and leadership are rooted at the heart of our mission.”

Powered by Amazon Security and themed “Securing the Future — AI, Innovation & the New Era of Black Excellence,” Houston’s event is one of more than a thousand in the brunch series, which includes stops in Martha’s Vineyard, Ghana, and at the VMAs in Los Angeles.

For Thomas, the brunch series is a dream realized and one that actually began in his apartment in 2012 with a small group of friends.

“It’s based around the concept and tradition of Sunday dinner, which I grew up doing every Sunday,” he said. “One day, with all my friends over at my apartment, we were toasting each other and toasting Black excellence, and it just kind of stuck.”

While the Black Excellence Brunch in its current form didn’t officially launch until August 25, 2017, that toast set off a serendipitous journey that carried Thomas from the streets of New York City to the palm trees of Los Angeles and into a franchise that has taken the worlds of Black celebrity, business, and tech by storm.

Thomas’ rise began during then-Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. While attending Winthrop University in South Carolina, he was in the right place at the right time to witness — and plug into — Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary. After graduating with coursework in broadcasting and mass media, Thomas joined the Obama campaign as a communications manager, booking interviews and media appearances for some of its top surrogates.

“On the Obama campaign, I got to work with…Dr. Maya Angelou and Chris Rock,” he said. “I kinda just got thrown into it.”

Little did Thomas know that he was given divine experiences.

After catching the political bug, Thomas followed the well-worn path of many Obama alumni to Washington, D.C. That’s where he spent nearly five years in digital organizing and campaign roles, including at the New Organizing Institute and, later, under Melanie Campbell at the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

Seeing organizing and strategy as bigger than politics alone, Thomas moved to New York City in 2013. After eventually finding himself at the intersection of entertainment, policy, and social good, he decided to pursue his dream full-time in Los Angeles.

“I had this vision of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to really build community,” Thomas said. “And in 2017, I jumped out on a leap of faith and started my complete entrepreneurship journey.”

That leap would take Thomas all the way back to Washington, D.C., in 2024 for a Black Excellence Brunch that he, President Joe Biden and, first lady Jill Biden hosted on the South Lawn of the White House. Catered by Chef Kwame Onwuachi, the White House edition featured a performance by Grammy Award–winner Monica and a guest list that included: Iyanla Vanzant, Anthony Anderson, Latoya Luckett, NAACP President/CEO Derrick Johnson, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

The brunch coincided with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference.

Whether at the White House or AfroTech, Thomas’ vision — rooted in the feeling of Sunday dinner at mom’s house and the love, affirmation, and celebration that come with it — is, for Takirra Winfield Dixon, the revitalization of culture.

“Trell’s vision, work ethic, and passion for seeing us all win are remarkable and inspiring. But it’s also what people don’t see behind the scenes,” said Winfield Dixon, founder of Unapologetic Communications and a Black Excellence Brunch partner. “Black Excellence Brunch is more than a celebration; it’s a reclamation. I’m excited for what this space can be and to continue joining Trell on his journey to build and sustain a courageous space for our authentic Blackness to thrive.”

The brunch’s family-style meals, which require guests to share and pass plates, push attendees out of their comfort zones and into conversation, connection, and community. It’s all part of a strategy Thomas sees as essential to building joy and evoking the spirit of togetherness.

“This is a different way to bring people together with the intention of celebrating them, loving them, and allowing them to feel appreciated,” he explained.

What started in his apartment in 2012 now touches iconic venues. In 2022, during a Black Excellence Brunch at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Thomas remembers seeing the brunch logo on the Jumbotron and being blown away by how far the series had come.

“I know Sunday dinners, I know spaces of joy, and I know my culture,” he said. “I know those things inherently, and they’re in me — so to be rewarded or noticed because of them was surreal.”

As DEI programs continue to contract, the Black Excellence Brunch continues to expand — because Black consumers remain the trendsetters that most corporations simply can’t do without.