Jermel Carr is a veteran marketer and the Founder and Chief Solutions Provider of Project FORWARD Marketing Solutions, LLC. Formed in 2010, Project FORWARD is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) that has been focused on providing strategic and tactical marketing solutions to practical entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized businesses to help them reach their highest branding, sales, and volume potential. From the same premise, Project FORWARD has developed the Personal Brand Coaching Academy program to develop curriculum, activities and programming for students and professionals to help them understand the importance of, and how to develop, their personal brands to allow them to be as successful as possible now and in the future.

Jermel has spent over 2 decades in marketing. He has worked at well-known companies and brands such as Kimberly-Clark, where he worked his way up to a Brand Manager on the Huggies Brand, and Nestle Prepared Foods, where he worked on the billion dollar-plus brands of Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s.

Jermel is from the south side of Chicago, IL, where he was born and raised. He is a double graduate of the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Degree and his Master of Business Administration Degree in Marketing. A proud 25-year plus member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Jermel also walked on, lettered, and played multiple years of football as a Golden Gopher. When he is not being a passionate marketer, Jermel, who resides in the Cleveland, Ohio area, also runs a small motivational t-shirt business called Uplift Tees. He enjoys being a motivational speaker to students and professionals, trying new restaurants and cuisines, analyzing television commercials, and watching sports with—and cheering on—his teenage son, Jelani.