Strategies for Developing Diverse Professional Services Partnerships
Learn how business diversity strategies can expand your access to innovative talent and grow your business, and career.
August 24, 2023
Course Format
In-Person
Duration
1-Day
Investment
$3,000*
Early Bird Special
Earn 10% off this course now. Seats are limited. Reserve your spot today. Offer expires July 28, 2023.
Procure a Winning Strategy
By attending this interactive course, you will gain career-building knowledge by engaging with industry experts including Nadia M. Quarles to develop a winning business diversity strategy that expands your access to innovative talent and makes a difference within communities by engaging women and minority-owned businesses in the professional services industries, including IT, asset management, and financial services.
Learning Objectives and Expected Outcomes
This one-day course delivers practical solutions to build impactful and sustainable business diversity programs, focusing on strategies to expand professional services with minority and women-owned businesses.
After completing this program, learners will be able to:
- Explain best practices around identifying, hiring, and retaining diverse businesses
- Describe how establishing a business diversity program within their organization could reinforce its efforts to grow the brand, further its mission, and accomplish key objectives
- Develop a top-down strategy to integrate hiring diverse businesses into their vendor selection and procurement processes
- Identify performance indicators to monitor progress and measure success
- Utilize a custom playbook of impactful business diversity strategies, including real-world case studies and a glossary of key terms from relevant sectors.
Meet Your Instructors
Over a full day of supplier diversity training, Quarles and a team of professionals in procurement, business development, corporate social responsibility, technology, and asset management, will teach you how to implement a business diversity program to empower you with the knowledge and skills to articulate the ROI, while building diverse community partnerships and wealth equity for minority and women-owned businesses.
Kemal Badur
AVP and CTO, Information Technology Services, University of Chicago
Kemal Badur is a senior leader with extensive experience in supporting and advancing technology in complex and distributed institutions. He has successfully established collaborative partnerships with partners, faculty, and students to make technology an integral part of mission support. His…
Wheeler Coleman
CEO, Executive Consultants United
Wheeler Coleman is the CEO and founder of Executive Consultants United (EC-United), a nationally certified MBE technology firm specializing in delivering innovative professional services, technology and workforce labor solutions. Under Wheeler’s leadership, EC-United has experienced exponential…
Courtney Davis Curtis
Assistant Vice President for Risk Management and Resilience Planning…
Courtney Davis Curtis is the Assistant Vice President for Risk Management and Resilience Planning at the University of Chicago, where she provides leadership and direction to senior managers, working to identify, evaluate, and plan strategies for the enterprise-wide insurance programs. Her focus is…
Mark Fehlberg, MBA
Assistant VP, Procurement and Payment Services, University of Chicago
Mark Fehlberg is the Assistant VP, Procurement and Payment Services at the University of Chicago. Mark joined the University of Chicago in 2010 and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Procure-to-Pay functions for the university. Prior to arriving at the university he served 20 years in…
Christina Fox
Human Resources Strategy and Operations Manager, University of Chicago
Christina Fox is a highly experienced HR Strategist with a passion for building, enhancing and cultivating a healthy workplace culture by utilizing a variety of HR tools and analytics to highlight organizational strengths and diagnose organizational challenges. With over a decade of experience in…
John Hillesland
Category Lead for HR and Professional Services, University of Chicago
John Hillesland is the Category Lead for HR and Professional Services at the University of Chicago. John holds a master’s degree in Global Supply Chain Management from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Iowa.
In his current…
Connie L. Lindsey
Executive Vice President and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility…
Connie L. Lindsey is former Executive Vice President and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Northern Trust, Chicago. She was the first African-American woman to be named Executive Vice President in the history of the firm. Prior to her retirement in November, 2021, she was responsible for…
Malik Murray
Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development, Institutional…
Malik joined Ariel in 2004 and focuses on institutional business development and client services. Previously, he spent eight years with Bank One Brokerage, most recently serving as the lead broker on the European shift for its international exchange-traded products group. Outside of Ariel, Malik is…
Nadia M. Quarles
AVP of Business Diversity, University of Chicago
Nadia Quarles is a thought leader and visionary diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist with a bold vision and mission to advance opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. As the Assistant Vice President for Business Diversity at the University of Chicago, Nadia is responsible for…
Kim Waller, MS
Senior Client Partner, Organizational Strategy and Diversity Equity…
Kim Waller serves Korn Ferry clients by bringing strategic enterprise-wide solutions that deliver high impact. Her approach is to help organizations move from theory to action through the power of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Ms. Waller has built talent and risk management strategies for…
Move Beyond Supplier Diversity
Create a modern business diversity program that encompasses opportunities for growth by accessing diverse talent in high-impact professional services.
Learn From A Leader in Business Diversity
Train with UChicago experts who’ve built one of the most successful procurement models in higher education.
Why Hiring Diverse Businesses Matters
Working with minority and women-owned businesses grants your organization the opportunity to access a richer pool of talent that is overflowing with new ways of thinking, helping drive innovation, creativity, and growth, according to workplace diversity research.
Diversity Pays Dividends
Companies can become stagnant by maintaining status quo business solutions. An effective business diversity program taps the ingenuity of diverse talent, advancing your organization’s ability to approach complex problems with flexibility and creativity. This course will help you understand and advocate for the value of hiring diverse businesses for professional services.
