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MBN USA

March 22, 2022

MPN’s C.J. Bland finds success making connections

By Tonya McMurray

When C.J. Bland launched the InfoConnection newsletters in 1998, he intended it to be a hobby — a way to keep Metro Atlanta’s diverse professionals up to date on events, meetings, news, announcements and job opportunities.

But after rising to a Fortune 100 company director level and growing tired of the corporate world, Bland turned that hobby into a full-time business. More than 20 years later, Minority Professional Network Inc., or MPN, now nationally and internationally known, has attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers to its publications and engaged with millions of professionals via online and social media platforms. MPN has attracted more than 2,000 corporate, educational, nonprofit and government clients and partners looking to expand their diversity outreach.

The first MPN website launched shortly after 9/11. Its first customer was Merck & Co. Inc., which ordered 50 job postings. Soon after that, The Traveler’s Companies Inc. listed several jobs followed by increasingly more employers.

“Many others said that we were crazy to launch after 9/11, but it worked out well for us,” said Bland, MPN’s co-founder, president and CEO.

A bigger world

Overcoming challenges is nothing new to Bland, one of six children raised by a single mother in a New Orleans, Louisiana, housing project. He began taking college courses in high school and eventually earned two bachelor’s degrees plus a Master of Business Administration.

“Education was the key to a better future,” he said. “It helped me recognize there was a much bigger world and significantly better opportunities out there.”

Bland went to work at AT&T Bell Labs as an engineer after college and then worked as a technical program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He returned to AT&T in Atlanta, Georgia, working his way up to the role of sales director.

Throughout his career, Bland focused on helping others, participating in adopt-a-student and mentorship programs and college recruitment efforts. He was also active in the National Society of Black Engineers, was elected as the National Black MBA Association Atlanta Chapter president and supported other organizations promoting equity for African Americans.

Launching MPN

The InfoConnection newsletters grew out of his commitments to helping others and promoting diversity. When the newsletter grew to 10,000 subscribers, Bland formally incorporated and launched MPN with services including a job board, recruitment placement and staffing, digital marketing, networking and recruitment events, training and consulting.

In 2003, the U.S. State Department came to MPN with a challenge: It was only attracting white males in the northeast and mid-Atlantic and wanted to reach a broader audience of diverse candidates across the country.

The State Department was pleased with MPN’s recruitment efforts and partnered with the company on diversity events across the country. Between 2005 and 2017, MPN planned 60 events in 40 U.S. cities. MPN attracted other government clients, including the CIA, FBI, FDIC and Energy Department.

In 2010, MPN secured Walmart as a training and development client. When a key Walmart Inc. contact moved to Dollar General Corp., the retail chain also became a client.

“We have always had steady year-over-year growth,” Bland said. “The DE&I space is very crowded today. However, we’re proven and have delivered real and measurable results, so we’ve continued to grow despite the competition.”

Continued growth

While many companies struggled to navigate the pandemic and labor shortages, MPN experienced strong growth over the last two years.

Because MPN’s work has always been virtual, COVID shutdowns had minimal impact. MPN reduced training and consulting work after the pandemic’s onset, but other services continued to operate normally, Bland said.

As companies struggle to hire in the tight labor market, demand for MPN’s job board and recruitment services has increased. MPN averaged more than 200 new customers in both 2020 and 2021. In the first few days of February 2022, MPN brought in as much revenue as it typically earns in a month.

Bland said his current focus is on expanding MPN’s partnerships and supplier diversity opportunities. The company is exploring ways to collaborate with member-based HR and other DE&I organizations in addition to recruitment agencies, job board aggregators, supplier diversity organizations and staffing firms.

“We’re more keenly, strategically and tactically focused on developing and scaling reciprocally beneficial partnerships and not so much on customer volume,” he said. “This could be the most significant revenue-generating year in the history of our company.”

To learn more about the minority professional network, visit minorityprofessionalnetwork.com