From Manila to Wall Street: An Immigrant's Journey With America's First Black Tycoon

An Immigrant's Journey with

Butch Meily

• Publisher: Heliotrope Books LLC
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781956474442
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Biographies
• Index: Business

From Butch Meily, trusted public relations strategist to Reginald Lewis, the history-making African American dealmaker, comes an eye-opening business narrative. From Manila to Wall Street tells two stories: the first includes daring corporate takeovers, an exorbitant global lifestyle, and the fatal brain tumor that claimed Lewis's life at age 50. Lewis struggled to reach the top, only to see his attempt to become the first African American-controlled company listed on the New York Stock Exchange fail and his Hamptons mansion burn to the ground. The second story is that of a young Filipino immigrant at Lewis's side. Meily reaches the highest tier of corporate public relations in New York, making a million dollars in one year. Yet, after his wife leaves him, Meily discovers that power, glory, and riches can bring loneliness and isolation. He began his relationship with Lewis as an employee and became his closest adviser and first-hand witness to the tormented, solitary man behind the image of a wildly successful takeover king.

"Butch Meily is the quintessential Bud Fox of the movie Wall Street, a brilliant and ambitious participant in the high-stakes game of the 1980s. In the process, he lost perspective of what really matters in his life. He finds redemption in serving his people hit by disasters. And so, his story continues."

-Loida Nicolas Lewis, chairman of The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation and former CEO of TLC Beatrice International

"This memoir introduces you to the world of business and big mergers. As a great literary piece, it also reflects on the true meaning and purpose of life. It is written with clarity and honesty. The reader will find his life enriched by this book."   

-Richard V. Croghan, retired educator and former Associate Dean at the University of New Mexico

"Butch Meily's engaging new book, From Manila to Wall Street is a split personality lifearama, beating any MBA curriculum in learning to be a greater-than-better, visionary, trailblazing business head-a

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise for From Manila to Wall Street
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Epigraph
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Author’s Note
• Prologue
• 1 – “CALL ME ‘REG’”
• 2 – THE BEGINNING, 1977
• 3 – THE DEAL, 1987
• 4 – “I’M GOING TO REPORT YOU TO THE FACILITY MANAGER!” 1977 - 1983
• 5 – “WE’RE COMFORTABLE AT $950 MILLION, REG”
• 6 – MISFITS, 1983-1985
• 7 – MIKE MILKEN
• 8 – A CANDY CANE VISION OF AMERICA
• 9 – 1985, AT LONG LAST LOVE
• 10 – “GOD, I LOVE THIS BUSINESS”
• 11 – NOBODY KNOWS WHO THE HELL YOU ARE
• 12 – MY CUP RUNNETH OVER
• 13 – MY TURN AT BAT
• 14 – “I COULD NO LONGER LOOK AT THEM WITH SELF-RESPECT”
• 15 – HE’S A “PARVENU”
• 16 – SEARCHING FOR A BANANA IN VENICE
• 17 – “LOVING YOU ALWAYS”
• 18 – KEEP GOING, NO MATTER WHAT
• Photos
• 19 – “WE COULD HAVE MADE HISTORY, BUTCH”
• 20 – “GET IN THE BACK OF THE CAR”
• 21 – THE BURNING OF BROADVIEW
• 22 – THE GRANDEST APARTMENT ON FIFTH AVENUE
• 23 – LOOMING STORM
• 24 – “HE GAVE ME HOPE”
• 25 – THE CURTAIN FALLS
• 26 – A SECOND BLOW
• 27 – THE WAKE
• 28 – WE’VE DECIDED TO STREAMLINE COSTS
• 29 – THE COUP
• 30 – A BEGINNING AND AN END
• 31 – LOSS AND REDEMPTION
• Epilogue
• Scene List
• Acknowledgments
• Author Bio
• Footnotes