By Loida Nicolas Lewis

Butch Meily’s memoir “From Manila to Wall Street” recounts his journey as a young Filipino immigrant and a public relations professional in the USA. Then lightning strikes: the Filipina wife of an African American entrepreneur-lawyer calls him about a PR opportunity. And his ascent to the highs and lows of the world of high finance begins.

I was that Filipino woman who gave him that fateful call to help the telling of the story ofmy husband, Reginald F. Lewis’ successful leveraged buy-out of the popular but waning pattern company McCall’s and its successful sale to a British company, “earning a 90 to 1 return”. This quote, worked on by Butch Meily, came from The New York Times business profile of Reginald F. Lewis without mentioning his race but printing simply his photo. This started the trek to the One Billion Dollar purchase of Beatrice International Foods on a leveraged buyout by Mr. Lewis, the First Black Tycoon used in Butch Meily’s book as its subtitle.

Butch became “the quintessential ‘inside man’ at TLC Beatrice as, with Reg, he played in the high stakes corporate game of the 1980s and 1990s, achieving prestige and success beyond his wildest dreams”. I wrote this in the Foreword in his book before its publication by Heliotrope Books this year in May 2025.

Butch became like the character Bud Fox, (played by Charlie Sheen) the young executive assistant of Gordon Gekko, (played by Michael Douglas) in the iconic film “Wall Street” but also like the narrator Nick Carraway in the classic novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby.” As I wrote in the Foreword, Butch “saw a side of Reg I glimpse only from time to time…and unveils a portrait of Reg that is as deep and insightful as any to date.”

It is riveting that Butch writes his story like a movie, for instance, the historic acrimonious discussion among Michael Milken, Peter Ackerman and Reginald Lewis in one scene, followed immediately by flashbacks of Butch’s parents and his four sisters and one brother with him being the eldest growing up in Manila. He writes also about his personal life, how in the pursuit of the American Dream for himself, his wife Pam and only son Marco, he loses what in the end he realizes was what truly matters.

Butch in Author’s Note ends with this: “My hope is that the book will shine a light on a particular time and place from the last century and the people who played key roles in that drama. Reginald Lewis changed my life and that of countess others. May his story and mine, including our pursuit of the American Dream and my subsequent life as a humanitarian inspire people of all races and backgrounds for generations to come.”

Mr. Meily’s book “From Manila to Wall Street,” Mr. Lewis’ biography “Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?” and my own memoir, “Why Should Guys Have All the Fun?” are like the Japanese movie directed by Kurosawa, “Rashomon.” Each book mentions how one man Reginald F Lewis changed their life but each one presents him in different perspective, according to each one’s experience and truth. For the discerning reader, better read all three and hopefully, you will have a better understanding of Reginald F. Lewis who was like the sun in whom we warmed our ambition.