MBE Spotlight: Kimelberg PLLC
Kimelberg PLLC is one of the only Native-American-owned law firms focused on the representation of venture-capital groups, high-technology start-ups, and corporate clients. Our clients include national and international investment groups and companies. We also have an active Native American practice representing Native-owned business and economic development organizations in various matters. Additionally, our team is involved in non-legal Native activities. We are launching the first Native-owned commercial art gallery focused on contemporary Native American artists at the end of this year. K Art’s inaugural exhibition will include 10 nationally-recognized Native contemporary artists. Our goal is to help increase exposure of contemporary Native artists and their work and serve as a catalyst for furthering the dialogue about Native communities and their place in contemporary society. More information can be found at kimelberg.com and thek.art.
2020 Quarter 3 Newsletter
2020 Business Opportunity Exchange – REGISTER NOW
Corporate Spotlight: MTA
Michael J. Garner, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is a champion of the diversity market, making it his mission to create a more diverse business industry by empowering NYS certified Minority, Women-owned, and MTA certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises across New York through educational programming and access to increased procurement opportunities. Since 2010, Mr. Garner has designed one of the country’s leading MWDBE Business Development Programs. Read the full Spotlight here.
MBE Spotlight: The Medici Group
Sweet Joy Hachuela and Frans Johansson lead The Medici Group – a groundbreaking solutions firm that helps companies accelerate their innovation and growth by leveraging diversity. Read the full Spotlight here.
The Council Around The Web
This quarter we were proud to present dozens of webinars for our clients. We continue to help MBEs navigate these difficult times and foster long-term connections with our corporate partners and government agencies. Supplier development begins with the Council.
NY Grant Recipients
Congratulations to The Council’s One Hundred Black Men
The Founding Chapter of One Hundred Black Men, (OHBM-NY), offered opportunities for our minority-owned businesses to apply for grants through the Moet Hennessy “Unfinished Business” initiative.
Moet Hennessy has made a national commitment to demonstrate a “Never Stop, Never Settle” spirit and continues to encourage that same spirit with minority-owned businesses by investing in their success.
We are happy to share that a total of $70,000 was awarded to 11 of our Council-certified MBEs. We look forward to sharing more opportunities like these with our certified-minority-owned businesses.
New Board Members
The Council is pleased to welcome our new Board Chair, Ms. Angela M. Guzman. With over 15 years of media industry experience, Angela is a leading advocate for diversity in the Media & Entertainment sphere. Our former vice-chairperson, Ms. Guzman is Director of Supplier Diversity Comcast NBCUniversal, where she is responsible for developing partnerships that will promote the use of minority-, women-, veteran-LGBT, and disabled-owned businesses company-wide.
The Council is proud to have such an experienced and devoted professional as our new board chair.
The Council welcomes two new staff members: Dhanisha Patel, Sourcing Assistant, and Colin Allum, Communications Liaison.
Dhanisha is a Rutgers Business School student majoring in supply chain management. She utilizes her supply chain and sales knowledge to facilitate sourcing connections between MBEs and corporate members and helps manage our affiliate portal and central database.
Colin applies his 10+ years of experience in leadership and project management to help the Council effectively communicate with partners and foster new connections.
2021 Networking for Scholarships
On The Horizon
Thank You To Our 2020 Annual Sponsors
During these difficult times, The Council would like to acknowledge and thank our corporate and MBE champions. We appreciate your dedication to helping our mission of bringing opportunities to minority suppliers and advocating on their behalf.
Thank You To Our 2020 Supporters & Donors
MBE Spotlight: The Medici Group
Frans Johansson & Sweet Joy Hachuela
Co-Founders of The Medici Group
Sweet Joy Hachuela and Fran Johansson lead The Medici Group – a groundbreaking solutions firm that helps companies accelerate their innovation and growth by leveraging diversity. For the last 15 years, The Medici Group’s mission has been to create a world where they use their differences to change it.
The company’s thought leadership derives from CEO Johansson’s global bestsellers, The Medici Effect and The Click Moment. Medici has empowered hundreds of organizations and thousands of teams around the world to leverage diversity and inclusion to increase collaboration, speed, and innovation.
They fiercely push leaders to value the role of diversity & inclusion as a business imperative and actively seek out diverse perspectives and talent. The Medici Group has made “diversity drives innovation” a universal truth, and commits to making sure diversity, equity, and inclusion are the imperative and guiding principle that drives humanity forward.
Corporate Spotlight: MTA
Michael J. Garner, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), is a champion of the diversity market, making it his mission to create a more diverse business industry by empowering NYS certified Minority, Women-owned, and MTA certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises across New York through educational programming and access to increased procurement opportunities.
Since 2010, Mr. Garner has designed one of the country’s leading MWDBE Business Development Programs. As the architect behind the MTA’s Small Business Development Program (SBDP), Mr. Garner has penetrated the largest transportation authority in North America with a pragmatic, results-driven construction mentoring program that continues to break barriers for minority, women, disadvantaged and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in New York State; his program has awarded participants with more than $400 million in prime contracts. Throughout Mr. Garner’s professional career, he and the teams he cultivated along the way have paved the way for certified MWDBE/SDVOBs to receive more than $10 billion in awards.
Mr. Garner is a member of the Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem. Serves as President of the Founding Chapter of One Hundred Black Men in NYC. He is on the board of Harlem Hospital and advises numerous U.S. cities and states on diverse and inclusion programs.
