The Grass Ceiling, founded by Rose Harper in 1995, is a business empowerment firm specializing in helping individuals, groups, and organizations develop leadership skills and strategies that increase bottom-line results by accessing the business of golf. The Grass Ceiling helps women and minorities navigate the complex tapestries of the corporate world and leverage the neutral zone provided by the game of golf in order to promote effective communication and positive bonding between professionals.
The game of golf is synonymous with “big business,” and it is one of the most globally-effective tools for networking and deal making. As a business tool, the game of golf can be an important door opener and bridge builder for business development, politics, and international relations. According to Barron’s, one quarter of the 25 million golfers in America are top management executives – 80% of whom agree that the game of golf is an important business development tool. As a leading innovator in executive leadership development, The Grass Ceiling teaches executive-level women and minorities, as well as those in the academic space, how to access the professionally- and personally-enriching benefits of golf.
The Grass Ceiling’s seminal empowerment program, The Art of the Deal: Golf, is the culmination of more than 10 years of research and pilot testing. Conceived as a platform to level the playing field for emerging market groups in preparation for growth, advancement, and leadership opportunities, the program is administered in five different certified seminars that are accredited at the college level: Leadership; Professional Leadership Development; University Lecture; Executive Coaching; and Executive Peer Level. For nearly 20 years, the program has effectively demystified golf and demonstrated how the game is used to do business and to promote effective, high-powered human relations.
About Rose Harper
Rose Harper brings more than 25 years of experience in the golf industry to her position as Founder and CEO of The Grass Ceiling in order to provide participants with a solid, actionable plan for translating experience on the course to advancement in the boardroom. Ms. Harper, one of the world’s foremost golf subject matter experts, cultivated her expertise over several decades of managing professional golfers, negotiating their contracts and business affairs, and directing domestic and international professional tournaments. She created the college-level accredited business seminar series, The Art of the Deal: Golf, and has spent years teaching it as an Adjunct Professor at universities around the globe
Ms. Harper is an internationally-renowned consultant in sports and special events management to U.S. Presidents, royalty, celebrities, ambassadors, and Fortune 500 CEOs. Her legendary contributions to golf include: founding the PGA Tour Wives Association; initiating the Golf Digest Minority Golf Summit; reformatting the PGA player credentials; establishing a minority joint venture golf course design team with Gary Player and Arnold Palmer to provide a golf feasibility study for the nation’s capital; being the first person of color to operate and manage a full concession 18 hole golf complex for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and organizing the first multi-racial sporting event in the history of South Africa.
A former board member for the Bing Crosby Golf Tournament and the D.C. Baseball Commission, as well as former chair of the $2.5 billion D.C. Retirement Board, Rose is the recipient of countless awards for her lifetime achievements in business, sports, community service, and development. She was inducted to the National Black Golf Hall of Fame in 2011 and the D.C. Hall of Fame in 2009, receiving their Sports Legacy Award. She was also honored by the PGA as a founding member of the PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship in 2006.
Rose holds Executive Certificates in the following areas: The Emerging Trustees Congress – New Orleans; Institute for Fiduciary Education – Yale University; Finance – Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; National Conference on Banking; International Protocol Association and Business Administration – Howard University.