Ron Walker is on a mission. His quest: To bring science, technology and cosmetology together to develop “tecnologically soud” hair care and beauty products. So far the 47-year-old entrepreneur has been successful. As president of R.M. Walker HealthCare Products Co. Inc., a $2 million firm based in Tucker, Ga., Walker recently introduced his own line of relaxers, conditioners and shampoos.Unveiling his own product line has been a longheld dream for Walker, who has over 25 years of experience in the hair care industry. However, when he launched R.M. Walker in 1987 with $500,000 in personal savings, Walker started out as a consultant, not a manufacturer. (Walker owns 49% of the company; Vice President Francis Guess, who is black, controls 14%, and Ray Danner, who is white, owns 8%. Walker says that he has three other minor investors.)Walker recalls, adding that R.M. Walker’s first client was Schering-Plough Corp., a Madison, N.J.-based pharmaceutical and consumer-products company. When Schering-Plough decided to concentrate on its pharmaceutical operations, Walker decided to research and develop his own line of products geared toward African-Americans.

Thanks to his connections, Walker in 1987 was ableto get Schering-Plough to invest $3 million over a three-year period for research and development. And the research has paid off. In early 1991, the “kink Wave Memory System,” a complete line of wave and relaxer products, was introduced to hair stylists during the National Black Hair Fashion Group’s semi-annual educational retreat in Chicago.