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USBLN CONFERENCE 2014

ORLANDO, FLORIDA

OCTOBER 1, 2014

4:05 p.m. ET

CRYSTAL D/E

Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations: Disability-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (SDVOB)

SUPPLY CHAIN PLENARY SESSION

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Caption First, Inc.

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Monument, CO 80132

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This text is being provided in a rough draft Format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.

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> RONNETTE SMITH: Good afternoon! Welcome. Welcome to USBLN's Business Leadership Network supply chain plenary. This session will focus on disability owned and service disabled veteran owned businesses, meeting and exceeding customer expectations. I want to thank Jill and her staff for putting together the 17th annual USBLN conference.

(Cheers and applause.)

Let me also congratulate them for exceeding their attendance by 10%, doubling the number of students, and recent graduates, and unveiling the new USBLN new brand.

I have to say as a long term partner and founding partner of the disability supplier diversity program, Wal Mart, and I couldn't be more proud of what the USBLN has done. And their growth as being the only organization that certifies disability owned businesses.

Has everyone enjoyed themselves thus far this conference?

(Cheers and applause.)

Have you met a lot of people? Have you signed some contracts?

(Laughter)

Business being done. That's good stuff. My name is Ronnette Smith, and I worked for Sam's Club, a wholesale division of Walmart Incorporated. Previously I worked in Corporate Affairs and Outreach to diverse communities: the disability community, the native community, and also 50+ community. I have now moved over to the operation side, Sam’s Club. Many people look at me like a deer in the headlights when I say I've done that. But for movements like this and I'm sure this audience well knows, you need people on every side of the table that make decisions as it relates to fairness and workplace. So as I stand here today as an operator and a merchant. I'm honored to keep my commitment to USBLN to serve as the supply chain plenary chair, and to open this session. It is in respect of this work and devotion of this work that we gather together to make sure that people with disabilities are integrated into the workplace, the supply chain, and the marketplace.

I'm also pleased to be able to introduce my successor who happens to be a good friend and a trusted colleague, Russell Shaffer. Russell, will you stand for a moment?

(Applause)

You will hear more from Russell later on in the program. So let's do a quick profile here. 700 billion people with disabilities. 60% of them working age comprising every diverse community, representing three trillion dollars in purchasing power. Every person living and breathing on planet earth, if we live long enough, will have a disability or lose previous abilities and gain alternative abilities. And still some may say why disability inclusion? There are at least six reasons why, 1)strengthening supply chains grows market share, 2) customer compliance, member corporations leverage diverse and disability suppliers to comply with customer regulations and report on those. 3)Capability and agility: Disability entrepreneurs, service-disabled veteran owned businesses offer quality and strong capabilities in a wide array of product and service categories. 4)Again, the buying power, 3 trillion, duh. 5)Brand loyalty. People with disabilities are loyal to businesses that are loyal to us. We want the same thing everyone else wants in a business. We want product assortment. We want our needs met. We want access. Ease of use. We want competitive prices. And we want the businesses that demonstrate that they appreciate our service both by practice and policy.

6)Finally, talent attraction, talent acquisition and talent retention.

Every business wants to build a strong bench strength of talented professionals that cannot only can envision but execute epic stuff.

(Laughter)

For the businesses that they work for and for a diverse consumer base. So successful and forward thinking businesses recognizing, incorporating disability diversity and inclusion practices positively impact their bottom line.

So let's talk about meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

And let me assure you that this plenary will meet and exceed your expectations.

Ahead, let me give you an idea what you've got coming up and what you have in store for you. You're going to hear from Patricia Richards who is the director of the Disability Supplier Diversity Program. Patricia, as many of you know, works tirelessly on behalf of DOBEs.

You have Jill Houghton, who is our committed leader and executive director of USBLN. As an emcee for your program, you're going to have Philip DeVliegher who will serve as our phenomenal MC. Listen, I've heard him. He's going to be great. There also will be interviews from some savvy business professionals that will share their insight. They will be interviewed by the incomparable Joyce Bender and then you will end your program with the Entrepreneurial Idol winner and runners up. These are some very impressive people that are business owners, and they are actually doing some epic stuff too. So wait until you see what they have to offer. Now, will you all join me in welcoming to the stage, Patricia Richards.

(Cheers and applause.)

> PATRICIA RICHARDS: Thank you, Ronnette, I really appreciate all of those great words. Thank you so much for serving as a wonderful, wonderful supply chain chair. The sessions have been great. The feedback we've received has been wonderful. And we've been blessed with some great presenters and moderators. I'd like to take the opportunity also to introduce to many of you that those of you that may not know her, Cami Turcotte. Cami, could you stand, please. Yah. She's the coordinator of disability supplier diversity program and, again, DSDP couldn't get done its work done without her. She's been has unflagging strength and energy. I don't know where she gets it from, that is really helped us do the things we need to do with the program. Again, it's my pleasure to be here with you today. I'd like to just share with you that the disability supplier diversity program was launched in January 2010. It was really about offering corporate and government agency members a reliable source for certified disability owned businesses and service disabled veteran owned businesses. We see this as a holistic approach to how do you support the disability community-- in addition to workforce and marketplace. It's part of the total economic picture. So for those of you that are supporting us, we really appreciate it. I'd like to thank our founding partners who have made it possible. You can change the slide now, our founding partners who include EY, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IBM, KPMG, Marriott, Merck, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Sodexo, Southwest, Sun Trust, Wal Mart, WellPoint and Wells Fargo. Great companies. Let's just thank them.

(Applause)

And guess what? That was just the start. We've been fortunate to grow the number of corporate members over the past several years and I want to thank those who supported us and ask those of you in the audience who are corporations that haven't got involved with DSDP, come see us. Come see me and Cami. We'd be more than happy to get you involved. Again, you'll see on the screen some of our corporate members that are participating very actively in the program. We thank you for that. Thank you for your support and we're looking for forward to a great 2015. And now for the rest of the show. I'd like to invite to the stage Jill Houghton, who is going to come up and say a few words. She is the executive director of the USBLN. She has been so supportive of our efforts on DSDP. And she always is there as our champion when we're not- to say have you thought about DOBEs? Have you thought about our disability owned businesses, our service disabled veteran owned businesses? You need to get engaged with DSDP! So Jill, thank you so much.

> JILL HOUGHTON: Let's give it up for Patricia Richards and Cami Turcotte. The reality is this program does not happen without their leadership. But speaking of leadership, you're in for a real treat. Because I have the honor of getting to introduce to you Philip DeVliegher. We met Philip Devliegher, let's see, we met you through our partnership with National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. And our good partners and friends at NGLCC who opened the doors to so many not only to give us policies and procedures, but to introduce us to their corporate partners. And we met Philip that way when he was with Marriott International. And he now is the managing director of his own business, Pdevl Consulting and interim President of the Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council. Philip has continued to be an integral part of helping the USBLN develop and grow the disability supplier diversity program. And so without further ado, it is a great honor to give you Mr. Philip DeVliegher.

(Cheers and applause.)

> PHILIP DEVLIEGHER: Thank you, Jill. Good day everyone. I trust that everyone has had a good day, right? And a great week here at the USBLN conference.

You know, before launching my own supplier diversity consulting business, I did have that great opportunity to lead Marriott's global supplier diversity program. And when Jill and the USBLN team introduced me to their new disability supplier diversity program which was back in 2010, for me there was no second thought about being part of this ground breaking movement.

I tried to remain involved every since and it's always an honor for me to serve this great organization in any way that I am able.

So again, if you are a corporation out there that has no yet become involved, please do. It is your opportunity to help move the disability community forward. So I encourage each and every one of you to do that.

So back in the day one of those first DOBEs to become certified through the USBLN was Bender Consulting. The chair of the 2014 DOBE committee and host of the weekly radio show, “Disability Matters,” on RadioAmerica, Joyce Bender. So let's talk a moment to learn more about Joyce and Bender Consulting. (Video Commercial)

> I'm Joyce Bender, the CEO and founder of Bender Consulting Services and a woman living with epilepsy.

> JOYCE BENDER: Welcome to the show, everyone! This is “Disability Matters” With Joyce Bender. We are live around the world they're listening to the show because of the segment we're going to have soon, we are breaking headline news on CNN. So this is going to be one great show. These guests I have today are phenomenal guests. And guess what the name of this show is today? "Sign the Contract." So here we go. We are first going to have our guests for the private and public sector procurement. And we are just so thrilled with these two dynamic individuals. First we have Tim Ruddell, the manager of sustainable procurement, Firmwide Procurement at KPMG and a founding member of the Disability Supplier Diversity Program (DSDP). Thank you very much.

And Eric Howard, strategic consultant for diversity and inclusion at the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. Welcome to the show both of you. Let's give them a big round of applause.

(Applause)

Tim, thank you for being on the show today

> TIM RUDDELL: Thank you for having me.

> JOYCE BENDER: I'm going to start with you, Tim. Can you start by telling us briefly for those few handful of people throughout the world who may not know who KPMG is and what is the firm's role in the marketplace.

> TIM RUDDELL: It would be my pleasure; first of all, KPMG is a tongue twister. It stands for Klyveld, Peat-Marwick, McLintock and Gesellschaft.

We're an auditing tax services and advisory firm within the United States we have about 23,000 employees, 87 offices so we're a large business. Our purpose is to convert the knowledge of those professionals(partners) into value for our clients for our communities, and also from capital markets.

> JOYCE BENDER: Thank you very much and we'll be back with you. Right now we're moving on to you, Eric. Eric, could you also share information on your organization. Some may not be familiar with it.

> ERIC HOWARD: Sure, I work with the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. It was formed in 2008 as part of the housing economic Recovery Act and my agency's responsible for ensuring the supervision, regulation, mission support of Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and the federal home loan banking system. The Housing Economic Recovery Act is put in place to address the subprime mortgage crises, to restore confidence in Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae and to set the tone to lead to my agency serving as the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Thank you very much.

We're going to go back to you for a minute, Tim. What is the incentive for corporate supply chains to look for a disability and diverse supplier like us? And service disabled veteran owned firms?

> TIM RUDDELL: Okay. Well there are many different facets to the business case for diversifying and inclusion. We touched on some of them in the introduction. For me, the most important one is just analogous to the business case for workforce diversity and that if we're not tapping into the full breadth of diversity of suppliers, we're not tapping into all the talent that's available and we're not tapping into the innovation and we're not tapping into the value that suppliers can potentially bring to us. So when we began our supplier diversity program formally in 2008, a short five years ago, we already had partnerships with the Women’s Business Enterprise Council (WBENC), the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)and we had just established a relationship with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). So when the USBLN approached us and said we're looking to do something similar for businesses owned by people with disabilities, it was a no brainer. And that's all it was for us. Joyce Bender well thank goodness it was a no brainer. But we also are receiving tweets throughout the world for questions for you.

> TIM RUDDELL: Oh.

> JOYCE BENDER: You lead procurement and sustainability for KPMG. So what would you say to your colleagues in the audience here at USBLN about a challenge you have confronted and conquered?

> TIM RUDDELL: Thanks to whoever tweeted that.

(Laughter)

> JOYCE BENDER: You can answer that question.

> TIM RUDDELL: As long as we can just keep it within the room, that's fine.

> JOYCE BENDER: Okay. I'll have to share that all around the world.

> TIM RUDDELL: I think the first point I would make is that we're all referred to as Corporate America. And it's important to note we're not all similar we all have our own goals and challenges and purposes. And I work in the procurement function. All our procurement functions work differently and within a partnership like KPMG, the main challenge I faced when I was trying to get our program off the ground was trying to tackle the issue of decentralization and procurement and authority for spend. So we're a partnership. So all of our partners have some degree of control over what they can spend money on. So we established fairly early, the chief operating officer established a group of champions within each of our business process groups. It started out being another thing to do. Over the five or six years since the program began, those people almost all have moved to the point where they are approaching me proactively. They come to me and say we have an opportunity to diversify our spend. And they're taking some of the work from me and I'm a team of one and that's a great thing. So again we got around the challenge of decentralization by finding people to be champions.

> JOYCE BENDER: Thank you. Thank you very much. And let's give our two dynamic guests a round of applause.

(Applause)

Thank you. Right now I'm going to break and then we'll be back. But here's our host, Philip DeVliegher.

> PHILIP DEVLIEGHER: Thank you, Joyce. Let's take a moment at this commercial break to enjoy a brief video of two of our DOBE host committee members, Cindy Ulven with Accelerated Engraving & Signage and Andy Houghton, Integrated Global Strategies (video commercials).

(Applause)

> PHILIP DEVLIEGHER: To Joyce with RadioAmerica.

> JOYCE BENDER: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Philip. This next group, I'm so excited what we're talking because because we're going to be talking about service disabled veteran owned businesses. And I just happen to know here that Mark