Sheriff, incoming county manager named in Black Business Ink’s Power 100

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 27, 2024

Forsyth County Sheriff and Clemmons native Bobby F. Kimbrough Jr. and incoming county manager Shontell Robinson are being recognized in the Black Business Ink Power 100, along with other influential leaders and organizations across the state.

Robinson currently serves as a deputy county manager and will become county manager on July 1. She will be the first woman and first African American to serve as Forsyth County manager. Forsyth County government has an annual budget totaling $580 million and more than 2,000 employees who provide services like the public health department, social services, public libraries, Smith Reynolds Airport and the sheriff’s office.

Robinson was hired as director of Forsyth County Human Resources in 2014. She was promoted to assistant county manager and then deputy county manager in 2020. Both positions include serving as the director of Forsyth County Health and Human Services. She was instrumental in leading the Forsyth County Department of Public Health and its dedicated staff through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Thank you, Black Business Ink for this award,” Robinson said. “I’m grateful to be recognized alongside Sheriff Kimbrough and other distinguished leaders from across the state.”

Kimbrough began his law enforcement career in 1984 as a police officer for the Winston-Salem Police Department. In 1987, he became an arson investigator with the Winston-Salem Fire Department while serving as the assistant fire marshal. He then moved to work with high-risk offenders at the North Carolina Department of Probation and Parole.

From 1995 to 2016, Kimbrough’s career changed as he served the United States Department of Justice as a special agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In 2017, he was elected as sheriff of Forsyth County, becoming the first Black sheriff in the county’s history. Since taking office, Kimbrough started an immense number of innovative programs including the implementation of the Drone as First Responders (DFR) and formed the Real Time Intelligence Center (RTIC).

“I want to give a special thanks to the Black Business Ink for this award. It’s an honor to be recognized among such great leaders, especially Shontell Robinson,” Kimbrough said. “It is truly a great honor to be a servant of God and the people. Not only is it an honor, it’s also a very humbling experience and for that I say, ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you’.”

Black Business Ink is a publication designed to celebrate the achievements of Black business leaders, entrepreneurs and community influencers in the North Carolina Piedmont. The magazine’s Power 100 honorees were selected based on community nominations and affirmed by an independent Black Business Ink advisory panel. They’ll be honored at an awards ceremony held at the Tanger Center in Greensboro on June 28 at 7 p.m. For more information about the awards, go to blackbusinessink.com.