Top Company for Supplier Diversity: AT&T
Accepting Award: Tim Harden, President, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations
Reasons for Honor:
- AT&T is a longtime supplier-diversity leader with high Tier 1 (prime) percentages: 15 percent with Minority Business Enterprises, 5 percent with Women-Owned Business Enterprises, 1.5 percent with Service Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises.
- The company holds numerous learning and networking events for suppliers, focusing on strategic growth areas such as cloud services, digital home, application development, and wireless and mobile data.
- The Prime Supplier Program, in existence since 1989, helps suppliers create their own supplier-diversity chain, including an annual plan. In 2011, AT&T’s Tier II (subcontractor) spend increased 31 percent over the previous year.
- The AT&T Business Development Program features education and business-development workshops for suppliers and executive-level scholarships.
