US Diversity Leaders Meet On Breakthrough Ideas of Supplier Diversity. See Value in Creating Jobs, Improving Local Quality of Life.

Online, June 11, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Leading practitioners and thinkers of business diversity and inclusion are coming together June 17 - 18 in Houston for dialogue focused on building breakthrough frameworks for supplier diversity programs. The meeting, "Supplier Diversity 2.0 - The Economics of a Comprehensive Community Wealth and Jobs Creation Initiative," engages diversity leaders with an array of practicing experts in supplier diversity, academic thinkers and policy makers. Results from a May, 2013 survey about supplier diversity issues will be explored.

The meeting is the next True Blue Inclusion venue in the "Architects of Change: The Chief Diversity Officer" conversations. The themed series is now in its second year, and the meetings have drawn participation from chief diversity officers both in the US and globally. The coming two-day agenda on supplier diversity gives participants unparalleled opportunities to access best thinkers and practicing business leaders in the field.

"For example, Wendy Lewis, Major League Baseball's Senior Vice President - Diversity and Strategic Alliances, will moderate key parts of the program, and will share her lessons in using innovative supplier diversity practices as a fundamental driver in professional baseball's highly successful community engagement and outreach," said Carlton Yearwood, True Blue Inclusion's Senior Managing Partner. "The notion that supplier diversity programs can have substantial influence in creating local jobs, improving local economies and sustaining a higher quality of community life is powerful. But it isn't a goal common to many supplier diversity programs. We hope to show it should be and can be."

The program will also feature Dr. Stephen Klineberg, Professor of Sociology and Co-Director, Kender Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. Dr. Klineberg is expert on urban change patterns and dynamics, having initiated the noted Houston Area Survey to identify and document changes in demographics and economics over the past decades. He will point to how the transformations of today's urban centers can be positively and sustainably affected by the contributions via supplier diversity.

Dr. Henry Taylor, Jr., Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Center for Urban Studies, the University of Buffalo, will converse with attendees as well. He will examine how comprehensive supplier diversity, community wealth and jobs creation initiatives regenerate distressed communities, and address the possibilities of a leadership role for the chief diversity officer and corporate America.

A panel with representatives from public and private sectors will have an extended discussion on the national and global impact of comprehensive supply chain, community wealth and jobs initiatives. The panel will include: Ralph Moore, President-Ralph G. Moore & Associates as facilitator; K. Layton, Director, Diversity Business Development, Johnson Controls, Inc.; Michael K. Robinson, Program Director, Global Supplier Diversity and Supplier Connection, IBM; Carlecia D. Wright, Director for the City of Houston Office of Business Opportunity; and Candace Jackson, Special Advisor, Minority Business Development Agency, United States Department of Commerce.

"Combined, these speakers bring an unprecedented strength of focus and energy to reshaping the role of supplier diversity initiatives to something much more valued and powerful," added Yearwood. "It's a new road for many chief diversity officers to travel. But the diversity leaders who are attending our Architects of Change conversations seem to 'get it' about the real value in building new approaches and solutions."

Results from a May, 2013 True Blue Inclusion Diversity Axiom survey that probed attitudes and understandings currently in the marketplace about an array of supplier diversity issues. The survey is both unique and unusual in that it sought respondents through social networking as well as more traditional Internet-based messaging.

"What we want to do," explained Catherine Smith, Managing Partner of True Blue Inclusion, "is to encourage and support the Chief Diversity Officer as business and thought leader. We bring the freshest current thinking and early insights to the table, both from our extensive contact networks and through the original work we put in the field. This will be evident at our meeting in Houston, where we will create exciting, open dialogue on two aspects of supplier diversity that we believe harbor possible breakthrough approaches: sustainable community wealth and job creation. These are notions that usually don't even surface when CDO's get together. With this conversation in June, we are making them the primary focus."

The True Blue Inclusion meeting is being co-sponsored by United Airlines, and by Andrews Kurth LLP, which will also host the session at its Houston headquarters facilities.

Commenting as host, Elizabeth Campbell, Partner and Chief Diversity Officer, Andrews Kurth LLP, noted, "We are pleased to host that this group of leading diversity thinkers. Diversity and inclusion are core values of Andrews Kurth, and participating in this discussion about supplier diversity is consistent with our commitment to diversity and inclusion as expressed in our business strategy."

A summary of conversation, thought and action at the session will be available after June 18 at True Blue Inclusion's website www.trueblueinclusion.

About True Blue Inclusion
True Blue Inclusion connects diversity and inclusion leaders worldwide. We collaborate on solutions of substance and value, coming together with key people of position and influence in business, government and society. Venues during the year focus on strategic access and networking, building on high-value interactions as a resource for thought-leading decisions. For more information, please visit trueblueinclusion.com.

About Andrews Kurth LLP
For more than a century, Andrews Kurth has built its practice on the belief that "straight talk is good business." Real answers, clear vision and mutual respect define the firm's relationships with clients, colleagues, communities and employees. With over 400 lawyers and offices in Austin, Beijing, Dallas, Houston, London, New York, Research Triangle Park, The Woodlands and Washington, DC, Andrews Kurth represents a wide array of clients in multiple industries. For more information about Andrews Kurth, please visit andrewskurth.com.