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,
잉 맥과이어
CEO 겸 사장
NMSDC
