Who’s shaking up the industry today and making it a unique, successful, challenging and innovative sector? The members of the 2016 Counselor Hot 25. Check out their stories.

With some people, you need a few sentences to explain exactly why they’re on the Hot List. But just one look at Bayo Simmonds, the owner and founder of the apparel company Assertive Creativity LLC (asi/37166), does the job in this case. This guy’s got game and so much charisma, his aura has an aura. Not since the likes of Jay-Z and Diddy has someone owned their look with so much swagger.

Born in Brooklyn to a Nigerian father and a mother from St. Thomas, Simmonds started his company in 2009 with an unabashed love of apparel design. “I picked the name of my company because it described our approach to fashion,” says Simmonds. “Coming from the fashion industry, I learned that you had to be assertive in your designs to survive. And since our passion is creativity, this is the best way I could think to approach this industry.”

And Simmonds, ever the confident entrepreneur, maintains that while he never expected overnight success, he’s in the industry for the long haul. “We’re a young company, so we’re looking for clients to grow with us.”

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