Shalomyah Bowers, also known as Christman Bowers, is the founder and head of Bowers Consulting Firm, a for-profit consulting group for left-progressive organizations and campaigns. He is also a leader of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a leading Black Lives Matter group that has come under scrutiny for operational, financial, and transparency reasons.
Background
The Bowers Consulting Firm website names Shalomyah Bowers as its founder and president but provides no other information about his background. [1]
Bowers spoke at a rally for President Barack Obama in 2012 in Akron, Ohio. [2]
Black Lives Matter Financial Controversy
Shalomyah Bowers is involved with several Black Lives Matter-related groups alongside Patrisse Cullors, the former executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF). Cullors resigned from her position amid scrutiny over personal real estate purchases that reportedly totaled $3.2 million. The BLMGNF denied that any charitable funds were used for those purchases. [3] [4]
Bowers is a board member and the chief financial officer of Dignity and Power Now, a left-of-center advocacy group founded by Cullors. [5] [6] He is also treasurer of the Black Lives Matter PAC. [7] [8]
Bowers has also worked as treasurer of Reform L.A. Jails, a group that was founded and led by Cullors and that paid her $20,000 per month for consulting services. [9] The group also reportedly paid Bowers Consulting Firm more than $270,000. [10] [11]
Available filings indicate that Bowers is a board member of the BLMGNF, the leading Black Lives Matter group. In January 2022, the Washington Examiner published an article exposing the group’s lack of publicly-apparent leadership, and questioning who was responsible for managing the tens of millions of dollars’ worth of donations the group raised in 2020. Bowers was one of two remaining board members listed on filings after the resignation of Cullors. [12]