Anthony A. Samuels

Entrepreneur Anthony A. Samuels was born on March 24, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York to Henry Samuels, Jr. and Yvonne Morgan Samuels. He attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical High School in Brooklyn, where he received his A.A. degree in computer-aided drafting, and his printed circuit design certificate from Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts in 1987. Samuels also received a certification in electro-mechanical drafting from the ITT Technical Institute in 1983 and a certificate in executive education from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1995.

In 1983, Samuels was hired by Raytheon as a computer-aided drafter. He would continue working in various drafting and technician roles throughout the 1980s until 1993, when he founded Done Right Building Services, a facilities management services firm located in Boston, Massachusetts. His clients included Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts; the City of Boston; the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority; Harvard Pilgrim Health Care; Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts; Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts; Shops at Chestnut Hill in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Simon Property Group. Samuels later renamed the company DRB Facility Services to reflect its widening client base. Under his leadership as president and CEO for more than thirty years, DRB Facility Services grew to become one of the largest minority-owned facility-services companies in Massachusetts, with annual revenues that have grown to $21 million. In 2019, Samuels participated as an inaugural member of the Eastern Bank’s Business Equity Initiative, a program designed to support the growth of minority-owned businesses.

Samuels served on the boards of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Roxbury Community College in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Yawkey Boys & Girls Club of Roxbury.

Samuels’s company, DRB Facility Services, was featured on the Small Business Administration’s 100 Companies list and the Boston Business Journal’s Largest Minority-Owned Businesses in Massachusetts and Largest Janitorial Firms in Boston lists in 2024. That same year, DRB Facility Services received the Supplier of the Year Award from the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council.

Samuels lives with his wife, Doris Samuels, in Boston, Massachusetts. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Anthony A. Samuels was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 13, 2023.