About Tina M. White

I began my third act in 2018 by forming D & W Tires Direct, LLC and TINA’S TIRES, INC. in 2019 without any business experience in the tire industry; but with more than 25 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur in other male-dominated industries. The tire businesses were started with a mere $5,000 and tremendous sweat equity. I was tire industry naïve, but determined, energized, and intrigued by an industry that is essential to all Americans.

My father was a veteran of World War II and utilized the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944; known as the G.I. Bill to obtain a low-interest mortgage home loan. Our family home was built in the City of Riviera Beach, Florida in 1950, and remains with a 28% poverty rate, high unemployment, 70% Black HUBZone and an underrepresented community. And it is the same City I am a homestead property owner and manage the day-to-day operations of BGRT, D & W Tires Direct, LLC, and TINA’S TIRES, INC.

My parents’ back-breaking hard work as low wage, blue-collar employees demanded higher education, and as a result, I entered Florida A & M University (FAMU) at the tender age of 16.

I graduated from the number one publicly ranked, Historical Black College and University (HBCU) with a degree in print Journalism. And my professional career started as a major account sales representative for Xerox Corporation. I worked smart to distinguish my abilities and was named “Rookie Salesperson of the Year” at the age of 21.

In 2018 I transitioned my career as a solid waste and recoverable materials lobbyist to integrate the White American $200 B tire industry. And became Michelin’s first and still only Black woman commercial tire dealer; empowered to sell to government and corporate fleets their full lines of tires. Michelin is the number one ranked tire manufacturer, which has operated in the USA since 1968 (54) years as of 2022.

And until 2018 Michelin was absent of any Black women in their commercial tires dealers’ network. And to date, Bridgestone, Firestone, Continental, and Goodyear’s commercial tires dealers’ networks are closed to Black women.