Preserving Her Father’s Legacy

Trina Bediako’s fondest memory with her father, Tilmon F. Brown, BS ’93, BA ’93, begins on the factory floor of Continental Baking Co.’s Wonder Bread facility in Paterson, N.J. 

At the time, Brown worked as a general manager of the soft bread plant and invited his daughter’s sixth-grade class to tour the factory. Wearing their white lab coats and wired hairnets, Bediako and her classmates walked through the baking production floors taking in the sights, sounds and sweet smells. Mid-tour, as a demonstration, Brown picked a fresh bread loaf off the conveyer belt line, sliced it in half and opened it up to reveal a billow of smoke that enraptured the class.

“Everyone was so intrigued and I just remember thinking my dad is the coolest guy in the world,” says Bediako, now CEO of her father’s longtime enterprise, New Horizons Baking Company in Norwalk, Ohio. “That was many years ago, but it just shows me that his passion for work and generous spirit never left him.” 

Since succeeding her father in 2020, Bediako operates one of the country’s largest Black-owned businesses, a $100 million enterprise that produces millions of products weekly, including hamburger buns, English muffins and soft sandwich breads for major brands such as McDonald’ s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. Along with these responsibilities, she manages the family's trusts. In 2010, her family established the Tilmon F. Brown and Jonnie R. Brown Scholarship to provide financial support and resources for UB students from traditionally underrepresented communities. 

While Bediako may not be a UB graduate, her father’s connections to UB run deep. Originally from Buffalo, Brown enrolled at UB in 1964 to study pharmacy. That same year, he met his wife, Jonnie, and they married. The following year, Jonnie gave birth to Bediako, the first of the couple’s three children. To provide for his growing family, Brown paused his education and found a job as route salesman for the Continental Baking Company in Buffalo, where he delivered bread and sweet goods to mom-and-pop stores, restaurant chains and supermarket clients. He continued with the company for the next 30 years, rising to corporate vice president and director of sales. His job demands meant frequent relocations for the family. 

In the mid-1990s, Brown left Continental Baking Co. to buy his own business, and he became CEO and owner of New Horizons Baking Company. In 1993, he fulfilled a promise made to his parents by returning to UB to complete his degree. Years later, in gratitude to UB for helping him achieve his educational goals, Brown and Jonnie, who died in 2014, established the Brown Family Scholarship. “Our family has been blessed and we can never be short from giving to others; nothing is lost or gained when we extend our gratitude,” Bediako says. 

Bediako’s rise in the baking industry mirrors her father’s. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1987 and attended The Wharton School to study business management and finance. She was working at a telecommunications company in 2002, when her dad asked if she’d like to work with him at New Horizons and learn the trade. For 18 years, Bediako held various positions in the company before taking over her father’s role. 

In her strides, she’s noted that it is unusual to see a Black, female CEO in a white male-dominated industry, and feels a special obligation to help others. “It is a challenge but not a defeat,” she says. “Along the way, I’ve learned the importance of my craft and understand that it’s crucial to be strong where I stand.”

For the past two years, she has led the company through record-breaking growth and earnings, and in 2021 was named an Entrepreneur of the Year Michigan and Northwest Ohio by Ernst & Young. In 2020, her father transitioned to chairman of the company; he is now semi-retired and resides in Las Vegas. Recently, Brown became the first African American to be inducted into the American Baking Society Hall of Fame. For Bediako, seeing her dad receive this honor has been one of her proudest moments as his daughter. 

“I remember him saying, ‘I never thought that would have happened,’” Bediako says. “And it might not have. But it has since become one of my proudest achievements witnessing him get the recognition he finally deserves.”