It is hard to go wrong with a Savage gray rolled paper background for studio portraits. The gray color matches a wide palette of wardrobe colors and looks classy. Gray also works well for formal corporate portraits.
The brightness of the gray background can be controlled with the background lights. Gray can range from black to nearly white depending on how much light you hit it with.
Lighting for this portrait is from Elinchrom studio strobes fired into softboxes.