April 2, 2012

The mission of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council is to significantly increase business relationships between our corporate members and our certified MBEs.  We believe that minority business development is a key component of reducing poverty, unemployment, increasing wealth, and integrating American society.  You are receiving this email in order to keep you abreast of developments with the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Supplier Diversity Issues and Minority Business Development.  If you like what you read please share internally and externally. 
Special Guest - CT Governor Dannel P. Malloy 
malloy We are very pleased to announce that the Honorable Governor Dannel Patrick Malloy will be our Special Guest at the Awards Gala and will offer remarks.  Before becoming Governor of Connecticut in 2010, Governor Malloy was the Mayor of Stamford and during his tenure saw the city grow to become a regional business and economic powerhouse.

Dannel Patrick Malloy, the youngest of eight children, was born in Stamford, Connecticut on July 21, 1955. Growing up, he struggled to overcome learning and physical disabilities, eventually gaining the skills he needed to go on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from Boston College and continue on to Boston College Law School. In 1982, Governor Malloy married his wife, Cathy, whom he met while at Boston College.
Read full Bio of Governor 
Annual Award Gala - April 26, 2012   
2010 galaGNEMSDC Annual Awards Gala on April 26 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, CT. 
This event will start at 4:00 pm with our Annual Meeting, followed by a cocktail reception starting at 5:00 pm. Dinner & the award presentations will begin at 6:30 pm.  {Please click below link for Sponsorship, Hotel information, and Directions}
       
Registration Information for Non-Annual Sponsors
In order to register for the GNEMSDC Awards Gala you will need to register with the GNEMSDC site {Please click below link for instruction "how to register online}.  

Annual Sponsors- please do not register online, email the names of your guests to gnemsdc@gnemsdc.org.  For non-Annual Sponsors follow the link below.


If you have questions about the portal's features or are having problems, please give Tatiana a call, (203) 288-9744.  To see the up-to-date list of current: Corporate and MBE Annual Sponsors  
2012 Annual Gala President's Award  - Mr. Jack Bryant 
bryantThis year we are very proud and honored to announce that Mr. Jack Bryant is the recipient of the President's Award.  Mr. Bryant is the President of Bryant Engineering Associates, a GNEMSDC certified MBE, from Boston, MA. Mr. Bryant is also a Tuskegee Airman, like the famous World War II unit featured in the block buster film Red Tails produced by George Lucas (Star Wars) this year.  George Lucas will is part of our program this year, making this year's program one of the most memorable in recent years.  We honor Mr. Bryant for his years of service to our country and for his business and entrepreneurial leadership.  I hope you can join us and help us honor this special American and special MBE. 
2012 Annual Gala Honorary Corporate Chair - Jennifer Jackson 
JacksonJennifer Jackson is CHA's President and Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the operation and management of the Association and its affiliated organizations.
 Prior to being named CEO in 2000, Jennifer served as CHA's General Counsel and Vice President of Clinical Services. Before joining CHA in 1988, she held various positions in hospital nursing, nursing administration, and insurance medical management.
 Jennifer holds a bachelor of science in Nursing from the University of Delaware, a master of business administration from the University of New Haven, and a juris
doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
2012 Annual Gala Honorary Corporate Chair  - Carlton L. Highsmith 
hightsmithChairman of the Board, Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology. Carlton has led the expansion into Connecticut of McArthur Genius Award winner Bill Strickland's replication model for adult training and after school student arts programming. Known locally as the Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology (ConnCAT), the Center is located in Science Park at Yale in New Haven and has become Strickland's fifth replication Center in the nation, joining San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati and Cleveland.  Vice Chairman, SPG PaperWorks, a portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners. In 2009 orchestrated a successful merger of Specialized Packaging Group with Paperworks to form the 3rd largest integrated paperboard packaging company in North America. Carlton served as Vice Chairman of the merged company until his retirement in April 2010.  Carlton was founder, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The Specialized Packaging Group, Inc (SPG) from 1983 until 2009 
2012 Annual Gala Entertainment - Ray Gonzalez Latin Jazz Quartet
We are very pleased to have the Ray Gonzalez Latin Jazz Quartet as the musical entertainment for the Gala.  This award winning group recently played at Mayor Pedro Segarra's Inaugural Ball where they brought down the house.  I know you will enjoy the music and bring your dancing shoes! 

2012 Annual Gala MC - Jonathan Coachman
jc
We are very pleased to announce Jonathan Coachman is a Sports TV Personality for ESPN and ESPN Radio will be joining us at the Gala this year as our MC.  Jonathan Coachman began his career in 19997 in Wichita, KS at KAKE-TV.  He continued on to Kansas City in 1999 where he worked in the same sports department with NFL legend and Super Bowl MVP Len Dawson.  In the fall of 1999 his career took an abrupt turn as Coachman took a hob as a TV personality in WWE.  He spent the next 9 years traveling the world working for Vince McMahon.  In 2006 he began also doing sports again at CSTV and MSG network in New York City.  In 2008 Jonathan left the road and the WWE for the friendly confines of Bristol, CT and ESPN.  In His almost 4 years with the company Jonathan has done just about every sport but he has found a niche as a main host on the flagship show SportsCenter.  You may have heard Coachman as you are driving around in your car on ESPN Radio.  In 2011 Jonathan joined forces with Freddie Coleman for "The Coach and Coleman Show" on ESPN Radio.  Jonathan is married to Amy and has 2 beautiful kids, Kayana (3) and JJ (1). 
Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
davisThe Scurlock Studios operated as a successful African-American business in Washington, D.C. from 1913 to 1984.  Addison Scurlock founded the business and was later joined in it by his sons, Robert and George.  Scurlock Studios captured many of the iconic images of famous African-Americans many of us know - Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Madam C.J. Walker and others.  Two of the Scurlock photographs have been made into postage stamps as part of the Black Heritage Series of the U.S. Postal Service.

The image shown above is of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. as a Tuskegee Airman ("Red Tail").  Davis, Jr. later went on to become the first Black general of the U.S. Air Force. The photo was taken by Robert Scurlock, who served in Davis' squadron.  A poster size version of this portrait will be on display at the GNEMSDC Gala on April 26. Thanks to George Scurlock, Jr. - Director of Diversity at The Metropolitan District (MDC), a corporate member of GNEMSDC, for this thoughtful and appreciated gesture.
(If you would like to see more of the Scurlock historical images, Google "Scurlock Smithsonian" to find links to the Scurlock photo archive now housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.) 
GNEMSDC MBE Scholarships
We are very pleased to announce that this year, the GNEMSDC will be making at least 4 full scholarships to MBEs to attend the Tuck School of Busines or the Kellogg School of Business Minority Executive Training Programs.  The qualifications for receiving the scholarships are that the MBEs be certified by the Council for at least 3 consecutive years and they provide a written statement of why they want to attend either of the programs. 
  
And the Nominees for Full Scholarships are: 
*             SAI Systems International
*             Reliable Mechanical Contractors
*             Soltrix Technologies
*             Sir Speedy Printing of Bloomfield
*             Picture That, LLC
  And the MBE Nominees Are.... 
Last week we announced the Corporations,Supplier Diversity Advocates and Procurement Professionals nominated by certified MBEs.  This week we are happy to announce the MBEs nominated by our corporate members. 

Supplier of the Year Category 1 (MBEs with sales under $1 million)
1.       Environmental Integrity Company
2.       Light Speed, LLC

Supplier of the Year Category 2 (MBEs with sales over $1 million and below $10 million)
1.       Blackburn Building Services, Inc.
2.       Done Right Building Services
3.       GBG: The Corporate Gift Source

Supplier of the Year Category 3 (MBEs with sales over $10 million and over $50 million)
1.       Essex Newbury North
2.       Systems International, Inc.
3.       PC Net Inc.
4.       AI Engineers

Supplier of the Year Category 4 (MBEs with sales over $50 million)
1.       The Matlet Group
2.       Software House International

Reciprocal of the Year (MBEs located outside of New England of any size)
1.       Zones
2.       Software House International

The purpose of the Annual Awards Gala is to recognize excellence.  We are proud of all of theCorporate and MBEs nominees.  On behalf of the board of directors, I wish each of you the best.  
  Opportunities with Corporate Members
* Potential suppliers to provide their customer invoice and statement print and mail services - Supplier submission should go to Panos Lapatas at panos@ur.com no later than Friday, March 30th, 2012

  * Potential supplier to provide relocation services for their employees - Supplier submission should go to Jamie Crump at jamie@ur.com no later than Thursday, April 12, 2012

  * Potential suppliers to provide language translation services - Supplier submission should go to Louis Williams at lwilliam@ur.com no later than Thursday, April 5, 2012

* Potential catalog production suppliers who are leaders in the market place, providing design, content management and supporting technical services to develop print-ready templates that meet requirements - Supplier submission should go to Louis Williams at lwilliam@ur.com no later than Monday, April 9, 2012.  
All United Rentals Opportunities details

Chrysler requiring more minority purchases  
GNEMSDC  Massachusetts Supplier  Diversity Golf Classic
golfThe GNEMSDC Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Golf Outing is coming to FerncroftCountry Club Club (www.ferncroftcc.com) on Monday, June 11.   This is the first golf outing in MA since the 2009 merger.  Our CT golf outing has been a tremendous success over the past few years, so much so, that there was no room to accommodate more players.  We are hoping that the reintroduction of the Golf Supplier Diversity Day to the Greater Boston Market will also be a tremendous success. Annual Sponsors have the choice of participating in either the Massachusetts outing or the Connecticut outing (July 13) or both.
We are asking for sponsors to provide us with the names of their guests by May 15Due to the limited space, we will not be able to hold your slots if you do not send your names to the office by June 1. One of the main attractions of this event is getting MBEs and Corporate members together.

If you are interested in a fun morning of golf, networking, food, drinks and relationship building and are not registered, we can put your name on a waiting list. 

 If you would like to donate any items for our very popular raffle, please contact the office (888-874-7114).   We are also looking for volunteers. Volunteering is a great way to meet hundreds of guests                                                    
2012 MA Supplier Golf Outing Co-Chairs: Bill Boodry of Liberty Mutual and Michael White of ACP Cleaning.

***Volunteer opportunity available -  Contact Volunteer Coordinator (before May 30)*** 
Events That MBEs Should Not Miss  
There are several events coming up on our calendar that are designed specifically for MBEs to learn about corporate opportunities.  We know how busy everyone's schedule is, but these are events often hosted by our corporate members with the expressed purpose of finding out more about you and your business with the ultimate aim, to make you a valuable supplier to their companies.  Here are some events you should consider:
  • 2012 Upcoming Events
  • April 26 - SAVE THE DATE- GNEMSDC Annual Awards Gala- Aqua Turf Country Club, 556 Mulberry Street, Plantsville, CT. This event will start at 4:00 pm with our Annual Meeting, followed by a cocktail reception starting at 5:00 pm. Dinner & the award presentations will begin at 6:30 pm.
  • May 15 - The Pitney Bowes Supplier Diversity Summit is a business networking event that increases awareness, builds business relationships, and educates stakeholders on the benefits and value of supplier diversity.  The Summit also provides the opportunity for diverse business owners to share capabilities with decision makers. May 15, 8 am to 3 pm  
  • June 7 -  2012 New England Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Day Conference & Expo!
     at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
NMSDC/GNEMSDC Information  
Please take a close look at the information listed below.  The links will take you to detailed information.   
And Finally...
Fred in ohio
Turtles move slowly.  Snails move slowly.  Time moves slowly when you have teenagers under your roof.  (Thank goodness I am done with that.)  I move slowly when I run 5 miles.  And the wheels of justice move slowly.  But last week I was pleasantly surprised to learn that legislation we have been promoting was quickly making its way into law in the State of Connecticut.  In the process, I have benefited by a great civics lesson and a lesson on the management of complex political relationships. But I digress.  We have been trying to restore funding for a much needed disparity study.  These studies are essential when implementing legally defensible programs that attempt to correct for the consequences  of past discrimination.  Without a sound empirical basis that a disparity study would provide, any government program designed to provide a preference to any group can be ruled illegal under the equal protection doctrine.  Last week we were able to to get three legislative initiatives accomplished.  One, the Appropriations Committee under the leadership of State Senator Toni Harp and State Representative Toni Walker reinstated funding for the disparity study that was earlier removed.  And two, we got the Government Administration and Elections Committee to temporarily put in place separate goals for MBE spend as distinct from WBE spend.  This latter action was thanks to the hard work and support of Representative Russ Morin and State Senator Gayle Slossberg.   And thirdly, we have another piece of legislation that will once and for all end the municipal exemption.  Municipalities around the state are exempt from the State's supplier diversity goals on public projects even when state funds are part of the funding of the project. Over the past 10 years this has led to MBEs and WBEs missing out on over $7.5 billion in projects.  As I look back, things happen on a schedule that is not my own, and often never fast enough.  But I have to say things are at least moving in the right direction.  These changes can have a significant impact on MBE development, the development of communities that need the most economic development, and the state as a whole.  Minority business development is not just for minorities.  
 
In your service,
Dr. Fred
Dr Fred QR