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.