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.