Massachusetts resident Darryl Settles has been an entrepreneur in the Greater Boston Area for more than 30 years, focusing on communities of color. He revitalized Bob’s Southern Bistro into Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen, then joined an investment group as Managing Partner to purchase Slade’s, a Tremont Street multi-ethnic music club in Boston’s South End. He was the founder of the Beantown Jazz Festival in 2001 and was an owner of the Beehive restaurant. Settles has worked with these communities and recruited investors of color to empower those neighborhoods.
In the past few months, he has received three major awards and is the recipient of Boston Magazine’s “150 Most Influential Bostonians,” given this year for his most recent involvement with the Builders of Color Coalition and the Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund. He is being honored as one of Boston’s Most Influential Men of Color for 2023 by Get Konnected founder Colette Phillips on her company’s 15th Anniversary. Also, Settles is one of the Charles River Chamber of Commerce’s “Most Influential Business Leaders of Color in Greater Boston’s Western Suburbs.” Mr. Settles served as chair of the Newton Economic Development Commission .
The businessman is the president of Catalyst Ventures Development, a company that provides resources for communities that encourage financial growth. Settles is also a founding member of the organizations Boston Means Business, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, the Builders of Color Coalition and the Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund. He is currently on the Meet Boston Executive Committee as vice chair. Settles is also on the boards of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce (GBCC), and the corporate boards of The Village Bank and Commodore Builders.
Mr. Settles resides in Newton, Mass. with his wife and family. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.
