Last month, as part of the Portland Means Progress initiative, NMSDC regional affiliate, Northwest Mountain MSDC teamed up with Prosper Portland to host a Supplier Diversity Executive Roundtable with local businesses in the greater Portland metro area at the Portland Metro Chamber offices. NMSDC senior vice president of affiliate services, Fernando Martinez, and Northwest Mountain MSDC president and CEO, Karla Malacon facilitated the event.
Following a brief networking breakfast, representatives of Prosper Portland welcomed attendees to the event, before introducing Martinez to give a presentation on supplier diversity and why setting up these programs is especially important to Oregon and Portland-area businesses.
After the presentation, attendees broke into small groups to discuss important topics related to supplier diversity at their businesses including:
- Why supplier diversity is important.
- How supplier diversity operates at each attendee’s company.
- Challenges faced when implementing these programs company-wide.
These small group discussions offered many key insights including:
- How companies can be more deliberate about incorporating diverse businesses in their supply chain.
- Although the Northwest Mountain MSDC has operated in the Portland market for many years, there was a significant appetite for how to implement supplier diversity practices among organizations new to the practice.
- The need to reinvigorate supplier diversity practices among the more established Portland organizations.
Before ending the event, chief diversity officer and social impact officer for the Port of Portland, Mayra Arreola called attendees to act on those lessons to advance minority business inclusion in Portland and Oregon.
We applaud Northwest Mountain MSDC and Prosper Portland for an impactful event and look forward to the measurable actions to incorporate more MBEs into the local supply chain that will no doubt result from it.
Learn more about the Portland Means Progress Initiative at portlandmeansprogress.com.
You can also learn more about Northwest Mountain MSDC’s work to advance MBEs and corporate supplier diversity at nwmmsdc.org.
