MUSCATINE, Iowa–The summer before his senior year of high school, Cleophus “Cleo” Franklin Jr., a strong student and athlete from Chicago, attended a basketball camp at the University of Iowa. Following an elite performance, he received recruiting letters from across the country and a personal visit from some of the University of Iowa’s men’s basketball coaching staff. Enamored, Cleo set his sights on attending the University of Iowa, but at six feet and three inches tall, he likely would not have played on the team. Instead, the University suggested he attend Muscatine Community College and play for them.
Franklin accepted the suggestion and enjoyed great success on the basketball court and in the classroom. With the personalized attention he received and the new experiences he had, he felt ready to take on his goals. “My time in Muscatine was both rewarding and challenging,” he said, adding that it helped him realize one of his guiding principles. “If your purpose is big, your problems and challenges will always be small.”
After graduating from Morningside College, Franklin distinguished himself as a business leader, especially in the agricultural equipment industry. He spent 21 years working for John Deere, occupying many positions across the company. He later took a role as a vice president at Case New Holland before serving as the vice president and chief marketing officer of Mahindra of the Americas, which grew from a company with $180 million in revenue to one with $2 billion.
Now that Franklin has taken early retirement from corporate life, he has focused on his other passions, including teaching business and marketing strategy to graduate students at the University of Houston–Downtown (he earned an MBA himself from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), running the consulting firm Franklin Strategic Solutions, assisting with startups, including one in educational technology, and overseeing the non-profit Franklin Leadership Foundation. He has also written three books, “Coffee with Cleo,” “Lessons from Our Mothers and Fathers,” and the children’s book “What Do You See When You Look at Me?” inspired by one of his sons, whose experiences growing up with an Autism Spectrum Disorder highlighted his creativity and ingenuity.
Cleo Franklin speaking to a group of about 25 at the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine on April 25. Photo by Margaret Hurlbert.
Though Franklin now lives in Houston, he returned to Muscatine April 25 and 26 at the invitation of Aligned Impact Muscatine County, the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine, and Global Education at the Stanley Center. He started his visit April 25 by having lunch with more than 70 Muscatine High School FFA students, as he has always had an affinity for agriculture inspired by his family’s farming roots. He found the conversation with them inspiring, as they asked him questions about leadership that he found worthy of graduate students.
In the evening, Franklin hosted a meet and greet at the Community Foundation open to the public. There, he talked about the five most important leadership lessons he has learned throughout his long and varied career, finding your purpose, making yourself relatable, showing humility, nurturing your curiosity, and practicing patience. He hoped his insights, accompanied by many personal stories, resonated with and benefited those who heard them. “My purpose is to serve by sharing my learning from my global leadership experience,” he emphasized.
The following morning, Franklin visited Jefferson Elementary School, where he read “What Do You See When You Look At Me?” to students in all grade levels. He also visited the Muscatine Agricultural Learning Center and Muscatine Community College. In celebration of the strong start in life the school gave him, he shared plans to start a pair of scholarships there, each worth $500, for underserved and disadvantaged students. “It’s just my way as a former scholarship athlete who was blessed to receive financial aid for my athletic and academic abilities to pay it back or, as they say, pay it forward.”
