Black-Owned Cyber Security Firm Opens Chicago Headquarters

Evanston Technology Partners (ETP), Chicago's first African-American owned cybersecurity and IT infrastructure company, has officially opened its headquarters in the city's South Side, marking a historic milestone for minority-owned technology businesses in the Midwest.

Founded by Emmanuel Jackson, a Chicago native who grew up in Bronzeville and Cabrini Green, ETP was built on the conviction that technology should be a pathway to economic empowerment for communities that have historically been left behind by the digital economy.

Jackson, who holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, spent years working with major technology firms before founding ETP. His vision: create a company that could compete at the enterprise level while remaining rooted in the communities it serves.

**A New Model for Technology Inclusion**

ETP's approach is distinctive. Rather than simply hiring from existing technology talent pools, the firm invests in training community members — many of whom have no prior technology experience — and placing them in high-paying cybersecurity and IT roles.

The company has established partnerships with IBM, Dell Technologies, VMware, Cisco, and Hitachi, giving its trainees access to the same enterprise technology platforms used by the world's largest organizations.

"We are not just a technology company," Jackson said. "We are a workforce development engine that happens to deliver world-class technology services."

*Source: [Citizen Newspaper Group, August 2019](https://citizennewspapergroup.com/news/2019/aug/07/black-owned-cyber-security-firm-opens-chicago-head/)*