MBN USA
August 01, 2025
McGuire discusses four years of progress
This month marks four years since I stepped into the role of
CEO at NMSDC—and what a journey it’s been. These past years have brought
challenges, growth, and transformation at every turn. I’m deeply grateful for
every team member, board member, corporate member, MBE, affiliate, and partner
who’s walked alongside me on this mission.
It’s also a moment of deeper reflection. We find ourselves
at a crossroads. The traditional supplier diversity model we’ve championed for
over five decades is being tested—politically, economically, and culturally. To
stay relevant and make a lasting impact, we must evolve. And we are.
Last month, I introduced the idea of impact sourcing—a shift
from simply measuring spend to driving real economic outcomes in the
communities that need it most while unlocking emerging market potential for our
corporate members. Your responses were incredibly thoughtful. Many of you
shared how this new framing helps ground our work in business value and
community uplift without triggering political division. Thank you for embracing
this direction.
This month, I had the unique opportunity to witness impact
sourcing in action—in a city that holds special meaning for us all, Chicago.
While there earlier this month, celebrating my father’s 90th birthday, I made
time to visit Xchange Chicago, a powerful new model spearheaded by our
Corporate Plus® member SDI Presence (David Gupta, Co-Founder/Executive Chairman
and Hardik Bhatt, CEO). It’s a public-private partnership that’s building an
onshore IT delivery center in the Southside of Chicago, a historically
under-resourced community. But this is more than a facility. It’s a movement.
Through training, apprenticeships of underserved local talents, and corporate
purchasing opportunities and partnerships, Xchange Chicago is proving that you
can build resilient, local supply chains—by uplifting overlooked talent,
bringing IT jobs back from offshore, and empowering MBEs to lead the way.
Within just its first year, Xchange has invested over $20M in Chicago’s Grand
Crossing neighborhood, trained 41 apprentices, and placed 37 in full-time IT
jobs at SDI (est. $2M in family-sustaining salaries and benefits). Focusing on
the untapped talent on Chicago’s Southside, Xchange is establishing a new IT
talent pipeline for Xchange customers as nine (9) apprentices will be converted
to full time positions at various Xchange clients by August.
Xchange is not corporate charity. Apprentices get
pre-trained and embedded into SDI project teams. SDI, as the employer of record
of these apprentices, pays them market-comparable salary and benefits. Supply
chain professionals, including CPOs, enable service delivery by signing Master
Services Agreements with SDI. These MSAs allow CIOs to engage Xchange to
deliver internal IT services using onshore (Made in America) teams, while
investing in and developing a local workforce. Five (5) Chicagoland Corporations,
and NMSDC Corporate Members, have already adopted this model. Four (4) more are
in the process of adopting by the end of 2025. With a goal of creating 1,000
Chicagoland apprenticeship positions by 2027 – and extending the Xchange model
outside of Chicago to other NMSDC corporate members – Xchange is an
illustrative example of the impact and value creation possible by our MBE
membership.
As I walked through the center, I couldn’t help but reflect:
53 years ago, NMSDC was born in Chicago as a seed of hope for inclusive
economic growth. Now, I’m witnessing a new seed being planted—one that has the
potential to scale nationwide just like NMSDC did.
Xchange Chicago is what impact sourcing looks like on the
ground. And with the support of corporations, MBEs, and policy leaders, it can
be replicated in cities across America.
We’ll be sharing the full Xchange story at our Annual
Conference in Miami, alongside transformative leaders from Chicago. I’m honored
to be joined on the host committee by hometown icons José Mas, Emilio Estefan,
Al Dotson Jr., and our Florida council president, Beatrice Louissaint, as we
collectively help shape the future of impact sourcing. Click here to register
for the conference today.
This anniversary isn’t just personal—it’s a reflection point
for all of us.
Onward,
Ying McGuire
CEO and President
NMSDC
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