Mcompany pays tribute to executive leadership

The 11th annual Mcompany Awards, celebrating “Executive Leadership in Supply Chain Diversity and Inclusion, was recently held at the Tower Club in downtown Dallas’ Thanksgiving Tower. Each year, Mcompany fulfills its mission in paying tribute and honor to outstanding entrepreneurs, corporations, organizations, public entities, individuals and advocates.

Hosted by Minority Business News and Women’s Enterprise magazines and sponsored by IBM, Mcompany has presented 135 Mcompany awards over the past 11 years.

This year’s program began with an introduction and history from Mcompany Founder Don McKneely, who then awarded scholarships to Jeffries Street Learning Center, Mi Escuelita and the Multi-Ethnic Education and Economic Development Center.

After the scholarship presentation, Tom Trotter, director of operations, IBM North America, gave sponsor’s remarks and a brief overview of the IBM SME Toolkit designed to assist small-, medium-sized and underserved businesses throughout the world.

The 2007 Leadership Awards were given to 12 leaders who exhibit a clear personal commitment to diversity in the Metroplex that serves as the model for all in their organization. Honorees of the evening were Billie Bryant, president of CESCO, Inc.; Debbie Dennis, vice president of the Dallas region customer operations,Oncor; Gloria Dixon, vice president, diversity and economic opportunity, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART); Sam Evans, director of small business and nonproduction procurement, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.; John MacLean, vice president of purchasing, American Airlines; Jerry Martin, senior vice president and controller, PepsiCo Financial Shared Services; John Martinez, president, Hispanic Contractors Association of DFW; Dennis Miller, vice president and director of procurement and strategic sourcing, JCPenney; Don O’Bannon, vice president of the small and emerging business department, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; Terri Quinton, president, Q2 Marketing; Rob Simpson, vice president of worldwide procurement and logistics, Texas Instruments Inc.; and Marilyn Townsend, director of supplier diversity and corporate services, Belo Corp.

“These are executive leaders in our community whose top-down commitment to diversity inspires and empowers those they lead,” McKneely said.“We are grateful to the corporate and minority and women business leaders who work to bring parity to our community.”

Later in the program, IBM received an award for its continued commitment to Mcompany and supplier diversity.

Mcompany is a division of the Business News Group whose publications cover supplier and workforce diversity as well as economic development in diverse communities throughout Texas and the nation.