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October 18, 2024

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This year’s event was the largest in BDR’s history

By M.V. Greene

Attendees at the 2024 Billion Dollar Roundtable Summit recently descended on Silicon Valley — California’s “Tech Mecca” — as they deliberated the value and business case for supply-chain engagement with diverse suppliers.

The largest event in Billion Dollar Roundtable Inc.’s (BDR’s) 23-year history — including more than 20 years of annual in-person summits, this year’s gathering was staged before more than 500 participants. It was held on the corporate campuses of hosts Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC, two of Silicon Valley’s iconic innovators that also happen to be BDR member-companies.

Meta and Google welcomed bringing the summit to legendary Silicon Valley tech towns from Menlo Park to Mountain View to Sunnyvale in the southern San Francisco Bay area. Meta hosted the first day of the event, which included the new member induction ceremony and a dinner program on its Menlo Park campus. On Day 2, Google hosted the summit symposium at its Sunnyvale campus.

BDR Chair Shelley Stewart Jr. and Co-founder, President and CEO Sharon Patterson thanked the Meta and Google corporate teams for enthusiastically embracing the summit and showcasing the importance and vitality of emerging technologies to supplier diversity. 

“Great companies continue to focus on the right thing,” Stewart said, noting the uniqueness of staging the summit in Silicon Valley.

Patterson added, “We’ve gone from a little, small room kind of summit to a Google-Meta kind of summit. We just do better and better, and we depend on you to make us better.”

BDR summits are held annually at venues around the country, attracting an array of stakeholders that include procurement executives, supplier diversity professionals, diverse suppliers, advocates, government officials and academics to discuss trending issues and themes in corporate supplier diversity.

“We’ve gone from a little, small-room kind of summit to a Google-Meta kind of summit,” Sharon Patterson, BDR co-founder, president and CEO, told attendees. “We just do better and better, and we depend on you to make us better.”

Meta and Google welcomed bringing the summit to legendary Silicon Valley tech towns from Menlo Park to Mountain View to Sunnyvale in the southern San Francisco Bay area. Meta hosted the first day of the event, which included the new member induction ceremony and a dinner program on its Menlo Park campus. On Day 2, Google hosted the summit symposium at its Sunnyvale campus.

Access to economic opportunity

Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer at Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc., welcomed attendees via video. She said supplier inclusion fits within the company’s vision of organizing the world’s information, making it universally accessible and advancing initiatives that expand access to economic opportunity.

“It is not just about delivering information. It is also — for us — about delivering opportunity and building an inclusive economy that works for everyone,” she said.

BDR summits are held annually at venues around the country — attracting an array of stakeholders that include procurement executives, supplier diversity professionals, diverse suppliers, advocates, government officials and academics — to discuss trending issues and themes in corporate supplier diversity.

Titled “(Innovation) ^ Inclusion = Impact,” the 2024 summit further spotlighted opportunities for diverse firms to compete for business in the region. “The rich cultural tapestry makes this nine-county region of 8 million people such a special place to live and work,” said Jason Trimiew, director, supplier strategy, Meta Platforms Inc. and its Facebook brand.

Google’s Síofra Harnett, director of corporate services, marketing and responsibility, called the opportunity to co-host the summit with Meta a “great celebration” for supplier diversity, adding that senior leaders across her company were thrilled to have attendees interact with “Googlers” at its campus. “BDR offers thought leadership, connectivity, community and a deep partnership,” she said.

The summit included special guests and myriad events — including the induction of T-Mobile, Coca-Cola, Medtronic and CBRE as new BDR member-companies. (See related article on Page 50). The event’s programming focused on topics that included an examination of data metrics impacting corporate supplier diversity, a discussion with Google executives moderated by chief procurement officer Jennifer Moceri that explored the “impact equation” of supplier diversity at Google and a review with tech industry leaders on how emerging technologies are currently being deployed in business.

Speaking on a summit panel, Nina Vaca, chairman and CEO of Dallas, Texas-based Pinnacle Group — a woman-owned supplier of information technology and workforce solutions to Fortune-level companies — said diverse suppliers currently continue to face obstacles to growth.

“We don’t have a challenge as a minority community in starting a business. The challenge is scaling the businesses,” she said. “To scale a business, you need investment. So, access to capital is a big deal. This journey of growth is continuous. You are never done. You’re always investing.”

Among other highlights were fireside chats with celebrities Daymond John, New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” TV show luminary and Keegan-Michael Key, actor, comedian, writer and producer.

In discussing entrepreneurship during the chat with Dan Reed, chief operating officer, reality labs, Meta Platforms, John highlighted how he went from humble beginnings in the world of hip-hop in his Queens, New York, hometown to establish his renowned FUBU apparel brand in 1992, which was his launching pad as an entrepreneurial savant.

He called business ownership “a mindset” that is required to find success.

“We become what we think about all the time,” John said. “We fly by the seat of our pants. We use the means that are in front of us to accomplish what we have. We wake up every day saying, ‘How can we better serve our audience today and tomorrow?’’

Melonie Parker, chief diversity officer at Google, engaged in a hilarious yet probing and serious back and forth with Key, who is part of the Key & Peele sketch comedy team. Among other topics, she discussed with him how comedy can be used to address social commentary and how he balances the two.

“Comedy is that spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down better,” he said, adding that comedy allows people to look at subject matter that resonates with them before placing it in a social or cultural context.

Connections

In a special summit announcement, Sandra Nielsen, global head of supplier diversity at BDR member company Verizon Communications Inc. and co-lead of BDR’s Governance Committee, welcomed WEConnect International as the organization’s newest certification partner. The partnership means that BDR’s 43 member-companies will now count diverse-supplier spend of WEConnect International-certified companies in BDR metrics.

As a global organization based in Washington, D.C., WEConnect International serves women-owned businesses in 135 countries. When introducing Elizabeth A. Vazquez, WEConnect International president, CEO and co-founder, to summit attendees, Nielsen said the partnership allows BDR to continue to leverage the expertise of gold-standard certified partner organizations.

“We’re taking a bold step forward to foster inclusion in the business world,” she said.

Vazquez praised BDR member-companies for approving the collaboration, noting that “Inclusion doesn’t stop at a national border.” Certified WEConnect International businesses “are ready to compete. They are ready to solve problems. They are ready to create jobs. They support our communities, and they are ready to scale,” she said.

In another announcement, Patterson told summit attendees that the 2025 summit will be held in Plano, Texas, hosted by member-company Toyota Motor North America Inc. Matt Greene, Toyota purchasing senior manager, supplier diversity, said his organization of more than 65,000 team members and partners looks forward to planning and hosting the summit.