Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, Yusef Hood has garnered a passion for civic engagement and cultivating culture for millennials through his experiences. As a young black man in America, he is a product of a unique past. As an advocate of peace in his community, Mr. Hood’s passions for domestic abuse awareness, gun violence, education reform, and civic engagement are a few of the things that drive him to successfully strengthen and support his community.  He has used the challenges of overcoming poverty and a family history of domestic violence and poverty, to attain his own path to higher education and skills to create the life and legacy that he wants to lead for his family.

Mr. Hood is currently pursuing his B.A. in business management at the prestigious Howard University. It was here that his entrepreneurial abilities were able to flourish as he began to barber in the school dorms his freshman year. He later developed his “Haircutsbysef” brand that enabled him to barber for the Lauryn Hill R&B concert. As his interest in the healthiness and nourishment of hair flourished, Yusef began his second professional entrepreneurial endeavor, “Bred In Butter”, a hair and skin butter. Leading to his next endeavor, he saw that he was surrounded by millennials seeking a platform to network, socialize, and develop elevated lifestyles. With “Renaissance Group,” he aspires to fill this gap using his entrepreneurial skills and relationships to pull from those before