WRMSDC Supplier Diversity Corporate
Best Practices Virtual Forum:


Take a look at our Digital Program Guide

We invite you to come together with top supplier diversity thought leaders and procurement leaders for candid discussions on strategies to build equity in communities of color through supplier inclusion. Many of you may remember it as the Program Managers Meeting. This year, we've taken it up a level and encourage you to tap your procurement and operational influencers and invite them to spend a few hours increasing their learning around supplier diversity and inclusion! United We Stand! Coming together to build equity.

⭐ Who Should Attend: Chief Procurement Officers, Procurement Directors and Managers, Category Managers, Buyers, Supplier Diversity Leaders, Diversity Champions, Business Unit Operations Leaders, and Corporations wanting to strengthen their supplier diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

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Headline Sponsor:

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Featured Speakers:

Tosh Ernest, Head of Wealth
Advancing Black Pathways

Topic: “Income Disparities by Race”

Speakers:

Cecil Plummer

President & CEO

Cecil Plummer is the president and a member of the Board of Directors for the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council. Plummer formerly worked with Robert Half for 17 years and left his most recent position as the Director of CSS Strategic Solutions to join the Council. Plummer has over 13 years of executive leadership experience and possesses a solid background in strategic sourcing, change management, performance and process improvement, Supplier Diversity, strategic planning, and risk management.

Headline Sponsor

Kelly Litster

Chief Procurement Officer

Kelly Litster is the Chief Procurement Officer of MGM Resorts International where she is responsible for establishing the strategic vision and executive leadership to optimize enterprise wide supply chain functions including category sourcing and procurement processes to deliver an optimal guest experience while maximizing value to the business.

Kelly has been with MGM Resorts for over 20 years in a variety of strategy, transformation, accounting, and auditing roles. She is a proud Las Vegas native who earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is also a Certified Public Accountant, certified Project Management Professional and Certified Fraud Examiner.

Lynn Reddrick

Director, Supplier Diversity

Lynn Reddrick is the Director of Supplier Diversity at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and is responsible for developing, implementing, and administering the program in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District. Lynn is an advocate for fair inclusion of diverse businesses in the procurement process. She serves on the board of directors for the WRMSDC, Women’s Business Enterprise Council-Pacific, and the Financial Services Roundtable for Supplier Diversity. She is also a member of the Executive Committee for the Bay Area Business Roundtable.

Tosh Ernest

Head of Wealth, Advancing Black Pathways

Tosh Ernest is Head of Wealth for Advancing Black Pathways, a JP Morgan Chase initiative designed to have a sustainable impact on the economic success and empowerment of black communities. She has led large change and transformation initiatives for the Private Bank and Investment Bank since joining in 2011. She graduated from the University of Reading, England with a first class honors degree, Bachelor of Arts, in Accounting and Management; is a certified AGILE Scrum Master, Six Sigma Black Belt and PMP professional, and holds a FINRA Series 99.

Beverly Norman-Cooper

President
Reimagining Economic Regeneration Strategies, LLC

Beverly Norman-Cooper is President of Reimagining Economic Regeneration Strategies where she helps companies harness supply chain purchasing to create good jobs, increase community wealth, and accelerate the economic, social, and physical regeneration of under-resourced communities. As the former Executive Director of National Supplier Diversity at Kaiser Permanente, she oversaw increased spend with certified women- and minority-owned companies from approximately $1.3 billion--when she took the role in 2015--to more than $2.3 billion when she retired from the health care company in 2018. Her tenure at Kaiser Permanente spanned more than 18 years in various consulting and staff roles.

“Ask The Expert” Discussion Panel

⭐  Panel Moderator: Cecil Plummer, President & CEO, WRMSDC

Michael Robinson

Program Director, Global Supplier Diversity

Michael K. Robinson is Program Director, Global Supplier Diversity for IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain. He is responsible for leading IBM’s supplier diversity initiatives worldwide. In this role, Michael, and his team, focus on the utilization, development and mentoring of diverse suppliers who can provide value-add to IBM’s Supply Chain. Michael’s team is also responsible for IBM’s Supplier Connection initiative which provides small businesses access to large corporations. IBM spent in excess of $2 Billion, 1st Tier, annually worldwide with diverse enterprises since 2006. 

Karl Gigante

Vice President, Procurement & Supply Chain

Karl Gigante joined the Las Vegas Sands in 2019 as Vice President, Procurement and Supply Chain. In this position, Karl has global responsibility for the Technology category supporting the Sands’ properties in Las Vegas, Singapore and Macau with an annual spend of $350 million. Prior to joining the Sands, Karl held multiple senior executive positions with Ford Motor Company in commodity purchasing, raw materials, indirect purchasing, supplier risk management, and project management. Karl has extensive experience building and leading multicultural teams through 19 years of international assignments spanning Brazil, Argentina, Thailand and the United Kingdom. Karl holds an MBA in Materials and Logistics Management from Michigan State University and a BA in General Liberal Arts from the University of Michigan. In addition to his native English, Karl is fluent in Portuguese.

Denise Lombard

Director, Responsible Procurement/Acquisition Integration

Although she has enjoyed the majority of her different roles at Cisco, Denise Lombard claims she has finally found her dream job. Denise leads a small team that is dedicated to Responsible Procurement which includes Supplier Diversity, Risk, Ethics and ensuring suppliers are committed to social/economic/environmental responsibility. Her team is committed to ensuring all opportunities include a diverse supplier, providing them a seat at the table and provide coaching and mentoring through an Executive Sponsorship program. She’s also part of Women’s group at Cisco where she focusses on working with young women in the community and increasing their excitement around careers in STEM and sits on the board of Child Advocates of Silicon Valley.

Scott Vowels

Manager of Supplier Diversity

Scott Vowels is part of the Supplier Diversity Team at Apple Inc. and author of the highly successful book “Hacking Supplier Diversity.” He is a recognized thought leader and expert in the field of supplier diversity. His experiences comprises over 20 years in procurement and 10 years in supplier diversity.

Carla Cobb

Corporate Supplier Diversity Manager

Carla Cobb is the Corporate Supplier Diversity Manager at Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). She is responsible for designing, managing, and executing elements of P&G’s supplier diversity and responsible sourcing programs. Carla joined P&G 33 years ago and has extensive knowledge and experience in supplier diversity, procurement, and strategic sourcing—particularly in the areas of direct/indirect packaging, content manufacturing, global relocation, global credit card, and professional services. She is a board member and vice chair of the Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council, Billion Dollar Roundtable member, and site event engagement leader for the Cincinnati Music Festival.

Breakout Session Conversation Leaders

Joan Kerr

Former Director of Supply Chain Responsibility for Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Happily Retired

Joan Kerr is the former Director of Supply Chain Responsibility (Supplier Diversity, Sustainability, and Ethics) for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. She joined the company in 2009, and under her leadership PG&E more than tripled its annual spend with diverse business enterprises, exceeding $2 billion and 40 percent of total procurement spend since 2013. Her service included Board service for the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, National Utilities Diversity Council, National Minority Supplier Development Council, WBENC’s Encore Committee, NGLCC Corporate and Procurement Councils, and WRMSDC just to name a few.

Tanya Nixon

Director, Supplier Diversity and Responsible Sourcing

Tanya Nixon is the Director, Supplier Diversity & Responsible Sourcing at Visa Inc. She is responsible for leading and expanding Visa’s supplier diversity and responsible sourcing program by enhancing financial and operational infrastructure and reporting mechanisms to increase alignment and engagement with our regional customers. Ms. Nixon is just a few weeks into her new role and excited about the opportunities before her. Prior to joining Visa, Nixon served for over 10 years as a Manager, for the National Supplier Diversity/Impact Spending at Kaiser Permanente. She holds a Master’s degree in Organizational Development, Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, and a certificate in Human Resource Management.

Tom Thattacherry

Head of Supplier Diversity

Tom heads Supplier Diversity for Roche/Genentech. In this capacity, he leads the supplier inclusion strategy across the company’s pharmaceutical and Diagnostics businesses and integrates inclusion into business units. As a Genentech DE&I Board member, he is actively engaged with the enterprise D&I strategy and implementation. He is also the liaison between U.S Government agencies and Roche/Genentech on all aspects related to small business subcontracting.

Tom is a past President of the Board of Directors for Diversity Alliance for Science, Inc. focused on developing diverse owned businesses in the Life Sciences and Medical Devices industries. He holds Board member and procurement advisory roles with multiple diverse supplier advocacy groups. Tom is a certified Integral Coach.

Beverly Norman-Cooper

President
Reimagining Economic Regeneration Strategies, LLC

Beverly Norman-Cooper is President of Reimagining Economic Regeneration Strategies where she helps companies harness supply chain purchasing to create good jobs, increase community wealth, and accelerate the economic, social, and physical regeneration of under-resourced communities. As the former Executive Director of National Supplier Diversity at Kaiser Permanente, she oversaw increased spend with certified women- and minority-owned companies from approximately $1.3 billion--when she took the role in 2015--to more than $2.3 billion when she retired from the health care company in 2018. Her tenure at Kaiser Permanente spanned more than 18 years in various consulting and staff roles.

Sal Peinado, Jr.

Supplier Diversity Program Lead

Sal joined Autodesk Inc., in October 2020. He is responsible for developing and implementing Autodesk Inc.’s global supplier diversity program. He currently serves on the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council’s board of directors. Prior to Autodesk Inc., Sal was Sr. Supplier Diversity Consultant at CSAA Insurance Group, where he was responsible for developing its Supplier Diversity program. He is past Chair of the California Department of Insurance Diversity Task Force. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from UC Berkeley and a Master’s degree in Economics from San Jose State University. Sal also taught courses in Microeconomics and Investments at San Jose State University.

Sarah Lyu

Supplier Diversity Consultant

Since 2003, Sarah has assisted large organizations and diverse business owners with developing, maximizing and leveraging opportunities that support economic growth initiatives for minority-owned and women-owned businesses. She is committed to developing viable solutions that are specifically tailored to the unique needs of each corporate client, helping to innovate and integrate supplier diversity strategic initiatives into sustainable practices. 

Scott Vowels

Manager of Supplier Diversity

Scott Vowels is part of the Supplier Diversity Team at Apple Inc. and author of the highly successful book “Hacking Supplier Diversity.” He is a recognized thought leader and expert in the field of supplier diversity. His experiences comprises over 20 years in procurement and 10 years in supplier diversity.

Event Agenda

Time*	Activity
10‍:‍00am	Event begins
10‍:‍03am	Welcome & Opening Comments
10‍:‍07am	Headline Sponsor Remarks
10‍:‍11am	WRMSDC Corporate Development Committee Remarks
10‍:‍15am	Racial Equity & Social Justice / One-Year Anniversary of George Floyd’s Death
10‍:‍21am	Announcement of New Corporate Members
10‍:‍25am	MBE Platinum Partners Spotlight Videos – Pt 1
10‍:‍28am	Poll Question #1
10‍:‍30am	Income Disparities by Race
10‍:‍37am	MBE Platinum Partners Spotlight Videos – Pt 2
10‍:‍40am	“How to Present to Executives in Your Company’s Culture”
10‍:‍54am	Poll Question #2 & Stretch Break
11‍:‍04am	Networking Conversations Breakout Session
11‍:‍49am	Stretch Break
11‍:‍53am	MBE Platinum Partners Spotlight Videos – Pt 3
11‍:‍56am	Poll Question #3
11‍:‍58am	“Ask the Expert” Panel
12‍:‍58pm	Wrap-Up & Closing
1‍:‍15pm	Event Ends

Thank You, Event Supporters