Most consumers are familiar with CVS Health Corp., the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States with more than 7,900 locations throughout the country. What consumers may not know is that CVS Health is a leader in supplier diversity. In fact, the Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based company plans to continue to expand the amount of goods and services it purchases from diverse suppliers — including companies owned by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals To help meet this ongoing goal, the company recently launched an innovative executive-learning program designed to help ensure the inclusion of diverse suppliers in its supply chain, which AMI participated in.
The program, called CVS Health Executive Learning Series, is an 18-week online and in-class course designed to help suppliers attain the knowledge, skills and capabilities to better equip themselves to do business with CVS Health, as well as other businesses and industries. The curriculum — 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 and technology skills, human resources and communications.
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.”
Ten business owners were selected for the course and chosen by a committee of national organizations that support supplier diversity, including 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 including American Meetings, Inc. –AMI.
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,” he said. “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.”
AMI was selected by CVS Health for 2018 class, and also received Supplier of the Year Ruby Award from CVS Health for its partnership in conference management.
Each year 10 suppliers are selected from top applicants across the country to participate in a ten-month intensive educational program to better their organization through a variety of digital strategies. Capital One’s best-in-class program selected AMI for the innovation of their supplier network of tier 2 suppliers supporting their clients’ meetings and event needs.
Out of 180 companies, AMI is excited to announce it captured one of the 10 coveted spots in the 2019 Capital One Catapult program.
CATAPULT is designed to be an intensive seven-month transformational journey that will assist diverse business owners in developing solutions to a critical business challenge – whether it is solving a complex business problem or creating a new product or service – by leveraging learnings from the program.
The program we submitted was for our Prime Supplier program within Meetingsoft with the goal of creating the greatest value for our planners, our sourcing managers, and our Prime Suppliers. Take a second to watch our 1-minute submission video:
Delivered through the use of instructional courses in Dallas, Texas, collaborative thinking workshops, one-on-one meetings with Subject Matter Experts, and dedicated advisers for each participating company, the program will provide AMI with the building blocks needed to develop a solution to your business challenge. In short, Capital One will be providing AMI with the resources to take our Prime Supplier program to the next level.
American Meetings, Inc. (AMI) is humbled and proud to accept the Global Supplier of the Year Award.
The Global Supplier of the Year Award is chosen from over 1,000 member organizations and recognizes the company’s growth, exemplary service, the superior development of supplier diversity initiatives, and overall positive corporate feedback. In addition, the award recognizes the company whose documented growth demonstrates a real benefit of adopting and furthering the mission of the NGLCC.
AMI has shown a sustained and ongoing commitment to supplier diversity. AMI’s CEO Andy McNeill points out that “AMI’s win is a testament to the diversity of The American Meetings Network and we’re proud the committee members recognized the 50% increase in active diverse suppliers we’ve experienced”. Along with strength of the network, AMI was able to document success in several major areas to win the coveted Supplier of the Year award.
These accomplishments include:
$3.4 million in documented Tier 2 spend through the thousands of active suppliers on The American Meetings Network.
4 Major multi-year corporate contracts secured since certification.
40% growth in corporate headcount since certification.
The American Meetings team will accept the award on November 17th at the National Dinner in Washington DC in front of 1000 friends, allies and peers.
The Seminole 100, hosted by the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at the FSU College of Business in partnership with the FSU Alumni Association and EY, recognized the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned by Florida State alumni.
Alumni from Florida State University are responsible for some of the most innovative and profitable businesses in the world. The Jim Moran Institute For Global Entrepreneurship at the FSU College of Business in partnership with the FSU Alumni Association andEY are proud to recognize these incredible entrepreneurs through the Seminole 100 awards program.
Seminole 100 recognizes the 100 fastest-growing FSU alumni-owned businesses at a celebration on FSU’s campus each year, during which each company learns their numerical ranking and receives their award. This event honors FSU’s entrepreneurs and allows them to share valuable business insights with each other. Honorees and their businesses will also receive increased publicity and visibility via national, local and industry media exposure.
“The remarkable success of these business owners reflects well on the university, and we are incredibly proud that they are Florida State alumni,” said Melissa Roberts, managing director of the Jim Moran Institute. “Seminole 100 is our way of recognizing entrepreneurial excellence among our alumni, and it helps fulfill Florida State’s goal of becoming a preeminent university that embraces entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation across campus.”
American Meetings, Inc. has made the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
We are ranked according to innovation, employee satisfaction, our clientele, and the percentage revenue growth over a three-year period.
This achievement puts us in rarefied company. The elite group we’ve now joined has, over the years, included companies such as Microsoft, Timberland, Vizio, Intuit, Chobani, Oracle, and Zappos.com.
Congratulations and thank you to our 52 Full-time employees and contractors, as well as the hundreds of other contract corporate meeting planners, travel directors and partner suppliers who help make AMI a success every day!
American Meetings, Inc’s CEO, Andy McNeill, was honored as a local #LGBT business leader at the South Florida Business Journal LGBT Business Leaders Awards at the EPIC hotel in Miami.
We’d like to thank the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBTQ Chamber and Bob Swindell for all their support.
More than 150 people celebrated the business leaders lauded as Outstanding Voices at the Business Journal‘s inaugural Business of Pride Awards on June 28.
The event at the Kimpton EPIC Hotel in Miami spotlighted South Florida-based LGBTQ executives or straight allies of the LGBTQ community who excel in business and work to advance LGBTQ businesses and/or the LGBTQ community.
The honorees were also featured in a special Business of Pride section that ran online and in print on June 29. The special section debuted a new list of the region’s LGBTQ-owned businesses ranked by revenue.
