AWARDS & RECOGNITION
AMI Receives CVS Ruby Award As New Supplier Of The Year
American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) is proud to announce that it has received a CVS Health Ruby Award for being named New Supplier of the Year.
CVS Health is the largest pharmacy healthcare provider in the United States with almost 10,000 locations throughout the country. They are a leader in supplier diversity, with plans to expand the number of goods and services purchased from diverse suppliers, including companies owned by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. To help meet this goal, the company recently launched the CVS Health Executive Learning Series, an 18-week course designed to help ensure the inclusion of diverse suppliers in its supply chain.
Ten business owners, including AMI’s CEO Andy McNeill, were selected for this course and chosen by a committee of national organizations supporting supplier diversity. The committee included the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, US Business Leadership Network, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Rising Tide Group, US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, and Southern Florida Minority Supplier Development Council.
Monette Knapik, CVS Health’s senior director of strategic sourcing and supplier management, said all executives at CVS Health — from the C-suite to front line management — are advocates of the new program.
“We want our supplier base to represent our employees and the communities we serve,” she said. “We recognize that this program is just good business practice.”
Monette Knapik, Senior Director of Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management of CVS Health
Raul Suarez-Rodriguez, manager of supplier diversity at CVS Health, is pleased with how well the program is going, adding that the company’s relationship with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce has been “tremendous” through the many years that CVS Health has been a corporate member and that the chamber has been instrumental in getting LGBT businesses ready to work with companies like the national pharmacy chain.
“The NGLCC helps develop LGBT businesses to be well-prepared to do business with corporations like ours.”
“The course is really robust and I hope that at the end of the program there is going to be a mentoring-type element attached to it.”
Raul Suarez-Rodriguez, Manager of Supplier Diversity of CVS Health
The curriculum of this program — developed by Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island — is similar to an executive MBA, and incorporates finance and budget strategies with leadership, management, social media, technology skills, human resources, and communications.
AMI was selected by CVS Health for the 2018 class, and also received a Supplier of the Year Ruby Award from CVS Health for its partnership in conference management.
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