Career
From 1994-2000, Loida Nicolas Lewis served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of TLC Beatrice International, a $2 billion multinational food company with operations all across Europe. TLC Beatrice was the successor to the international operations of Beatrice Foods. Currently, Mistress Lewis is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of TLC Beatrice, Limited Liability Company, a family investment firm.
Lewis earned a law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1960 and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1968.
Lewis was the first Asian American to pass the American Bar (in 1974) without having been educated in the United States. She worked for the Law Students Civil Right Research Council in New York in 1969, Manhattan Legal Services from 1970-1973, and as an attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Services from 1979-1990.
Lewis was born and raised in Sorsogon City, Philippines. She attended Saint Agnes" Academy (formerly Academia de Sta Ines) in Legazpi City and went to Saint Theresa"s College, a private, Roman Catholic women"s college in Manila, where she graduated cum laude.
They had two daughters, Leslie and Christina.
Reginald Lewis acquired Beatrice International in December 1987 in a $985 million leveraged buyout, creating the largest African American-owned company in the United States. The family moved to Paris in 1990. Nicolas-Lewis currently resides in New York City.
