BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Shaundell Newsome

Shaundell Newsome is Founder & Visionary of Sumnu Marketing is a three-time SBA Nevada Award winner; Small business Champion of the Year (2008), Family-Owned Business of Year (2015) and Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Year (2023). He started his first business in 1982, as a teenager while attending the High School of Graphic Communication Arts. He created fliers, posters and tape covers for early hip hop and rap artists in his Bedford Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) Brooklyn neighborhood. Shaundell credits his mentor Michael Collins, owner of Lou-Edna Graphics and Printing for his interest in the industry and entrepreneurship.

Prior to starting the marketing firm, Shaundell served a decade in the United States Air Force and worked for Station Casinos as a Marketing Director. New technology and innovation became his calling card over the past 30 years in Southern Nevada. In the Air Force he participated in Top Secret missions to develop Stealth and drone technology. He was a member of the Station Casinos Board Pass launch team that created gaming’s most successful loyalty program. Finally, he is one of the architects of the Vegas Chamber’s Leadership Advance Program and a graduate of its inaugural class.

In the early 2000’s In Business Las Vegas and Las Vegas Business Press featured Newsome’s Twelve Steps of Marketing and named him a marketing expert. In 2008 he was recognized as one of the “Top 40 under 40 businessperson in In Business Las Vegas. He authored a book titled The Twelve Steps of Marketing, A Perfect Guide to Branding sold on Amazon and has taught thousands of small business owners through in person and virtual workshops over the past two decades. Shaundell is widely known as a small business advocate and was featured on the cover of the New York Times Business section during the pandemic. Today, he is the Founder & Visionary for Sumnu Marketing, an award winning family owned marketing firm with his daughter, Tiara as its CEO and his wife Arlene as the CFO. His granddaughter Amaya is a Marketing Specialists making the company a three generation family business.

Newsome currently serves as co-chairman for the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee Community Affairs Subcommittee and Small Business for America’s Future, a national advocacy nonprofit that deal in policy for small business owners. He served as the Urban Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman for five years and now serves on the Vegas Chamber of Commerce Trustee Board. He’s married to Las Vegas Native Arlene Newsome. Together they raised 8 children. He is a dedicated Christian who actively participates in his community. He believes in developing new leaders for the future.