On Thursday night, October 29, the African American Chamber of Commerce held its 33rd Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, on Packer Avenue in South Philadelphia, and by the Chamber’s count more than 500 business owners, corporate executives, elected officials, entrepreneurs and strategic partners were there. In the days before, its invitation had asked members and friends to join in congratulating one firm in particular: Bellevue Strategies. I’m Harry Hayman, and Bellevue’s president and CEO, Mustafa Rashed, is a friend of mine. In my post about the honor I wrote that I could not be prouder of a man I am honored to call my friend. This is the longer version: what the Chamber is, what Bellevue does, who Mustafa is, and why I think this recognition is well deserved.

The Chamber and Its 33rd Dinner

The African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, known as the AACC, tells its own story on its about page. It was formed in 1993 in response to a legal challenge by contractors’ associations, in a dispute over discrimination in city contracting, and it calls itself the leading advocate for minority owned business in the Delaware Valley and Southeastern Pennsylvania. Its mission statement says it drives the growth and success of Black owned businesses, on the belief that their advancement makes the economies of the region, the nation and the global marketplace stronger, and that it works as “a trusted convener and policy influencer.” Its programs include Invest In Black Philly and Coaching to Capital.

Others have noticed. KYW Newsradio reported in 2023 that the Chamber was preparing to celebrate 30 years of advocacy for economic empowerment in Black communities across the region. In 2025 the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. named it Chamber of the Year at its national conference in Washington, D.C., and the Philadelphia City Council posted a document honoring and congratulating the Chamber for the award.

The Chamber’s page for the dinner says the night celebrated 33 years of continuity, recognized 250 years of Black contribution to America’s economy and looked ahead to a theme it calls Build What’s Next. It describes the dinner as “one of the region’s most distinguished gatherings of business, civic, and community leadership,” and says the celebration honored generations of Black entrepreneurs, business owners, innovators and leaders whose resilience and vision strengthened industries, created jobs and expanded economic opportunity.

The page lists six award categories: Entrepreneur of the Year, the Vanguard Award, the Chairman’s Award, Business of the Year, Nonprofit of the Year and Corporate Partner of the Year. Its honoree graphics name Marie Rose of Rose Bud Studios, Alfred A. Edmond Jr. of Black Enterprise, Melonease Shaw of Maven Inc., The Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia and Firstrust Bank among those recognized. The Chamber’s program booklet for the evening lists Bellevue Strategies as its Business of the Year, and that is the recognition my post celebrates.

What Bellevue Strategies Does

Bellevue Strategies is a government relations firm headquartered at 200 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, a location the firm describes as direct access to City Hall. I want to explain the phrase, because it hides a lot of work. In the FAQ on its home page the firm says government relations firms “serve as a bridge between organizations and the government entities that make decisions affecting them.” Its services page breaks that into government relations strategy, advocacy that builds public support by building consensus, and help with public funding, and the home page adds legislative advocacy and coalition building. The clients it names are nonprofits, corporations, trade associations, community organizations, healthcare institutions, educational organizations and advocacy groups. It says it keeps a continuous presence in Harrisburg whenever the Pennsylvania General Assembly is in session.

In 2023 the firm added a sister company, Bellevue Public Affairs, which handles strategic communications: media relations, message development and crisis communications. The firm’s tagline reads Experience. Relationships. Results. It also describes itself as the largest minority owned government affairs firm in the state, and says many members of its team are Philadelphia natives.

Who Mustafa Rashed Is

Temple University’s School of Tourism and Hospitality Management lists Mustafa as president and CEO of Bellevue Strategies, responsible for operations, technology, HR and vision. The same page says he served in the U.S. Navy in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, rising to Petty Officer Third Class, that he graduated from John Bartram High School in the Philadelphia school system, and that he holds a bachelor of science degree from Temple. He has also worked for NBC10, KYW Newsradio and the Philadelphia Public Record.

The Philadelphia Tribune’s 2021 profile adds the part I find most telling. He grew up in Southwest Philadelphia, started paying attention to politics as a teenager and interned at the Tribune itself when he was 14. “From that age I started to understand the importance of politics and what it means and what it can do for our communities,” he said. The same profile says he often wondered why a majority minority city like Philadelphia lacked African American owned government relations firms, and stepped up to help fill the void.

When Al Día covered the firm’s expansion into Pittsburgh in January 2022, it also reported why he founded the firm. “The communities in which companies and organizations wanted to do business are of color, the elected officials are persons of color but the consultants were not,” he said. The article noted that 43 percent of Philadelphia’s population is African American, and that the gap made no sense to him.

His connection to the Chamber’s work runs back further than this dinner. In 2018 he wrote a commentary for the Inquirer urging Black owned businesses to build a circle of people who can say “yeah that person knows who we are and has my back.” Among the organizations he listed for that circle, the first was the African American Chamber of Commerce, which he called “a leading advocate throughout the Delaware Valley” for minority owned businesses. Eight years later, the same Chamber was asking its members to congratulate his firm.

Eight Hours on a Diversity Panel

I can offer something none of those sources can. Mustafa and I once sat together for something like eight hours on a diversity panel, and we did it before it was in vogue to do so. We have both seen that arc play out since. Over the years I have watched the work, the grind, the relationships, the consistency and the impact that Bellevue Strategies has built, and it is something special. We do not always get together as much as would be nice. A lunch here, a quick text or email exchange there, and we always pick up fluidly wherever we left off.

That is why a passage on Bellevue’s about page lands with me. In a section called Where We Started, the firm says that to be the bridge between the organizations, electeds and communities it works with, “we need diversity of thought, ideas and talent,” and that “Strength in diversity and lived experiences was the birthing concept of Bellevue Strategies.” Those are not the words of someone who found the subject when it became fashionable.

Influence Without the Volume

In my post I said real influence is not about being the loudest person in the room. It is about relationships, building trust, creating access and moving important things forward, slowly but surely, while helping people and organizations find their way through systems that are often far too complicated. I wrote that about Mustafa because it is what I have watched him do, and the firm’s own pages back it up. The home page says the team keeps active relationships with decision makers across the Commonwealth, from Philadelphia’s City Hall to Pennsylvania’s Rotunda. On the about page, Mustafa puts his view of the job as a question: “What good is important policy if it can’t be properly communicated?” He said the same thing to the Tribune: “We realized that government relations policy is great, but you need to be able to communicate it.”

The quietest line is the one I trust most. In his 2018 commentary he wrote, “It is impossible for others to help you if they don’t understand your business and your goals and challenges.” That is a sentence about trust, and trust is slow. You cannot create access for someone you do not understand, and you cannot move an important thing forward if the people holding the door have no reason to believe you will be back.

I know the principle works because I have been on the receiving end of it. When our nonprofit was trying to do the right thing in Philadelphia with legislation, Mustafa looked out for us. He and his team, Jessica included, were there for us from start to finish, doing exactly what the firm’s name promises: providing the appropriate strategy at the appropriate time. Reading a firm’s promises on a website is one thing. Watching that firm stay with you from start to finish is another.

Proud of You: A Note From Harry Hayman

So here is the note, as plainly as I can put it. Mustafa, I am proud of you. I believe in you, I have always believed in you and I always will. I respect what you have built, and I stand behind you 376 percent, which is not a number you will find in any report and which I mean anyway. To everyone on the Bellevue Strategies team, congratulations on this recognition from the African American Chamber of Commerce.

KEEP GOING. This is not the finish line. It is another marker on a journey that has already covered a great deal of ground, and the Chamber’s theme for the night, Build What’s Next, sounds to me like a fair forecast. I keep saying culture is infrastructure. The people who connect a community to the systems that make decisions about it are infrastructure too, and I am glad a night in South Philadelphia was given to honoring one of them. Proud of you, my friend.

Bellevue Strategies Honored at the AACC 33rd Annual Dinner