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.

American’s philosophy is to concentrate on suppliers located in its key cities, continue to grow the pool of certified MWBEs, develop a supply base that reflects its customer base and provide opportunities to that segment of the economy. With a true top-down commitment, American Airlines has a diversity committee of the board, and each board member is dedicated to ensuring the supplier diversity program continues to foster growth with diverse suppliers.

American Airlines has taken numerous innovative approaches to growing its supplier diversity program. “We have taken it beyond purchasing within our organization. All departments within the organization are aware of our supplier diversity efforts; they report their diverse spend to us on a quarterly basis, and they are always looking for opportunities for WBEs and MBEs,” Rau said. “We realize that our customer base is getting more and more diverse everyday, so it’s very important for our supplier base to reflect our customer base. We have engaged our employee resource groups and our diverse segment marketing teams to ensure they understand the value that supplier diversity brings to our company. They are actively engaged in many of our outreach events. This teamwork demonstrates that American Airlines knows the value of supplier diversity, and we realize that success comes from diversity.”