Robert B. Crews Jr.

Entrepreneur Robert Benjamin Crews, Jr. was born on April 17, 1945 in Harlem, New York to Anna Beatrice Crews and Robert Benjamin Crews, Sr. He graduated from Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey in 1963.

After serving in the United States Army, in 1969 Crews opened his first business in East Orange, New Jersey, The House of Paper Mache, which went on to have locations in downtown Newark and Newark International Airport. He then launched the airport retailer, food and beverage operator, Crews of California, in Los Angeles as a subsidiary of The Benjamin Company, which he founded in New Jersey in 1972. As president and CEO of Crews of California, Crews opened a bookstore, Benjamin Books, at Newark International Airport, then the Eight Gate Café and News Emporium newsstands at Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Crews of California became the first minority-owned company in the U.S. to win and operate a prime concessions contract for all news, gifts, and book retail outlets at two major airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. In 1986, Crews was awarded a five-year lease retail space at Orlando International Airport, and Benjamin Books expanded to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 1988 and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 1996. In 2008, he co-founded Airport Retail Management Atlanta (ARM Atlanta) with his wife, Deborah Crews, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he served as president and CEO.

Crews was a founding member of the Airport Minority Advisory Council and the Newark Airport Businessmen’s Council. He also is a member of the Board of Sociology at Princeton University and the National Association of Guardsman.

In 2015, Crews was awarded the Candle in the Dark Entrepreneur Award at Morehouse College’s twenty-seventh annual A Candle in the Dark gala. The same year, Airport Retail Management received an Airport Restaurant and Retail Association nomination for Retailer with The Highest Regard for Customer Service. In 2017, Crews of California’s Rock & Brews restaurant at the Los Angeles Airport was named “Airport Bar of the Year” at the Airport Food and Beverage Conference.

Crews resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Deborah Crews. They have two sons, Rob Crews and Nicholas Crews.