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. In her tenure at BP, the inclusion of MWBEs has increased from less than $200 million in 1999 to over $700 million today. In 2009, the supplier diversity team implemented the Five Forward initiative, designed to further the progress of companies per segment, impacting economic development in local communities, minimizing risk of change and taking advantage of good companies in the market place. In 2010, she demonstrated great leadership and innovativeness in BP’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The supplier diversity team was on the ground impacting communities to ensure the inclusion of local Gulf coast MWBEs in the emergency disaster response and cleanup/recovery efforts.

Today, under her leadership, BP is taking its commitment to supplier diversity to a higher level in the industry by setting a goal within BP America to increase its spending to $1 billion. This will put BP in an elite group of corporations who lead, infl uence and shape supplier diversity in the U.S. “I have been doing this for a long time — having worked in two industries. I have had the pleasure to work with people like Don and others… Working with WBENC, we have made a difference around the country. It is a pleasure and with ultimate satisfaction that I am awarded for my passion,” Jennings-Johnson said. “I am fortunate enough to work for companies with a commitment from the top to help me do what I do and that provide the space to work with organizations like WBENC.”