Honorees 2010

Debbie Hurst and John Young

Energy Future Holdings

Accepting: John Young, President and CEO Energy Future Holdings
Presenter: Debbie Hurst, President, Women’s Business Council Southwest

Energy Future Holdings has a longstanding commitment to the economic development of the communities it serves. The supplier diversity initiative at EFH was founded and continues to be based on the strength of this commitment. Endorsed and supported by the highest level of EFH’s management team, the supplier diversity initiative supports the development and utilization of small businesses and businesses owned by women and minorities. More

Marsha Davidson and John Rau

American Airlines

Accepting: John Rau, Managing Director – Purchasing & Transportation
Presenter: Marsha Davidson, Board member, Women’s Business Council Southwest

Focused on making connections, American Airlines supplier diversity program was designed to bring the added value of diversity to its purchasing process by proactively seeking minority- and women-owned enterprises and providing the opportunity to participate as potential suppliers of products and services to the airline. Since 1989, total expenditures with diverse suppliers have reached approximately $3.3 billion. More

Billie Bryant (left) and Cheri Adams

Bank of America

Accepting: Cheri Adams, Regional Sourcing Manager, Global Supply Chain
Presenter: Billie Bryant Schultz (left), Board member, Women’s Business Council Southwest

Committed to helping businesses expand and thrive, Bank of America’s formalized supplier diversity and development program began in 1990 to ensure that diverse businesses are afforded maximum opportunity to participate in their competitive contracting and procurement processes. Bank of America has successfully targeted diverse businesses to participate in professional services, including legal services, marketing and advertising, personnel, property management, design and construction, technology and automation. More

Patricia Rodriguez Christian and Dr. Shannon Suber

Texas Instruments

Accepting: Dr. Shannon Suber, Director of Minority/Women Business Development and Worldwide Procurement and Logistics Talent Development
Presenting: Patricia Rodriguez Christian (left), Board member, Women’s Business Council Southwest

MWBEs have delivered innovative products and services to Texas Instruments for more than 20 years. TI benefi ts by receiving creative, diverse and cost-effective solutions to its business problems. The company objective is to provide procurement opportunities to certifi ed MWBEs, so that they can successfully compete for TI’s business. Requiring certification gives the company more confi dence in the credibility of its spending metrics, while suppliers benefi t from their relationships with certifi cation agencies. TI’s objective is to use an inclusive sourcing model that seeks out and enables certified nterprises to qualify and successfully compete for business. When these opportunities do not exist. More

Dennis Miller and Pamela Prince Eason

Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
Accepting: Pamela Prince-Eason, WBENC Chairman of the Board of Directors and Pfizer Inc. Vice President of Worldwide Procurement
Presenting: Dennis Miller, Senior Vice President, Controller, JCPenney Company

Founded in 1997, WBENC is the nation’s largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled and operated by women. WBENC partners with 14 regional partner organizations to provide a national standard of certification to women-owned businesses throughout the country. The group is also the nation’s leading advocate of womenowned businesses as suppliers to America’s corporations. More

Tom Trotter and Valerie Freeman

Accepting: Valerie Freeman, CEO, Imprimis Group
Presenting: Tom Trotter, IBM Executive (retired)

Valerie Freeman is the founder and CEO of Dallas-based Imprimis Group Inc., a leading supplier of staffi ng, recruiting, and human resource services. Imprimis operates under the brand names Imprimis Staffi ng, Bravo Technical Resources, Freeman+Leonard, Art Squad, Mature Personnel and Third Party Pay. Imprimis has been named one of the largest independently owned staffing firms in Texas. More

Terri Quinton (left) and Debra Jennings-Johnson

Accepting: Debra Jennings Johnson, Director of Supplier Diversity, BP America Inc.
Presenting: Terri Quinton (left), Board member, Women’s Business Council Southwest

For more than 20 years, Debra Jennings- Johnson has been an advocate for minority- and women-owned businesses. Her focus has been on increasing the growth of diverse companies in corporations and strategically working with corporate leadership to embed supplier diversity within their procurement processes. More

Susan Phillips Bari (left) and Dr. Terry Neese

Accepting: Dr. Terry Neese, Co-Founder and CEO of Institute for the Economic Empowerment of Women
Presenter: Susan Phillips Bari (left) , Founding President, WBENC

Serial entrepreneur, wife, mother, grandmother, pilot, mentor, public policy advocate and national political strategist are words that describe the many hats Terry Neese wears. She founded Terry Neese Personnel Services in the 1970s at a time when there were very few women who owned businesses. With very little money and no business plan, but a treasureload of passion, her firm has found jobs for over 30,000 individuals. More