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Gene Waddy, Founder & CEO of DIVERSANT headlined DiversityBusiness.com 16th Annual Summit

 


Southport, CT /  --DiversityBusiness.com latest event, the sixteenth annual “National Summit” brought together people from all over the United States. Once again, the diversity and entrepreneurship world came together under one roof, to network, to learn from one another, to exchange ideas, approaches and strategies, and, in the case of some, to be formally recognized for their hard work and commitment to multicultural markets in the United States.

Participants took full advantage of the keynote and panel presentations -as well as the social and networking aspects of the summit. Produced for business owners and the corporations, government agencies and academic institutions that utilize their services, the DiversityBusiness.com summit offered a solid platform for the kind of interactivity, exchange and networking that is usually missing from daily business life, due to physical distance, busy work schedules and other factors.

Perhaps the most valuable take-away for summit attendees were the keynote presentations that touch upon topics which include: entrepreneurship, marketing and branding, technology, social media, disability, and diversity. 

Gene Waddy, Founder & CEO of DIVERSANT, started off the morning presenting on the topic: Importance of entrepreneurship in driving our nation’s economy. Being 1st generational college graduate; Gene shared his story of how he overcame doubt from his family to CEO’s of one of the nation’s largest MBE IT Staffing Services.

Resonating on the importance of mentorship, Gene shared how mentorship has been a catalyst in DIVERSANT fostering over 1,000 consultants, 150 employees and 10 offices today. He also honed in on how DIVERSANT’s focus in ensuring people find jobs has resulted in robust veteran and STEM programs and over 1,000 jobs being created per year.

He concluded his presentation by encouraging the audience to also make a personal commitment to community through mentorship and giving back. As business owners, use your business as a ministry and lasting legacy. That is more, than just the money but, the impact you make as entrepreneurs to those all around you.


Other keynote presenters from the event include: Tiffany Pham, Founder & CEO of MOGUL;  Aisha Bowe, Co-Founder & CEO of STEMBoard;
Bill Evans, President of Current Staffing Solutions, LLC; Michelle Van Otten, Founder and Managing Director of Profit Ventures, LLC and Ben-Saba Hasan, SVP Chief Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Walmart.

The day rounded out with a chief diversity officer panel forum discussion  represented by brands : Time Warner Cable, MetLife, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MasterCard and NYC Department of Information Technology. Jennifer Brown, Founder and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting served as moderator.

Companies formally honored at the summit were the winners of the Div50 and the Div500 listings, which honor, respectively, the Fortune 500 companies and government agencies most dedicated to supporting diversity and the nation's top diversity-owned businesses.

"We're looking forward to another dynamic, successful year of multicultural business," said Kenton Clarke, CEO of DiversityBusiness.com. "The U.S. is so vast, and business moves so fasts, that were it not for events such as this one, the key underpinning of lasting, rewarding business relationships-face-to-face contact-would slowly fade into the background. Each year we see new faces, and they bring fresh ideas, new perspectives, strategies and of course new technologies and processes.

Sponsors
Major Sponsors for the event included: Wal-Mart, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, U.S. Postal Service, Colgate Palmolive,Time Warner, Hilton, and Apple.

| Press Contact: Quantise Rodgers | Director of Communications | DiversityBusiness.com | (203) 255-8966 | Contact US | 200 Pequot Avenue | Southport, CT 06890 |

Source: DiversityBusiness.com

About DiversityBusiness.com
Launched in 1999, DiversityBusiness is the largest organization of privately owned businesses throughout the United States that provide goods and services to Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and colleges and universities. DiversityBusiness provides research and data collection services for diversity including the "Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities", "Top 500 Diversity Owned Companies in America ", and others. Its research has been recognized and published by Forbes Magazine, Business Week and thousands of other print and internet publications. The site has gained national recognition and has won numerous awards for its content and design. DiversityBusiness reaches more diverse suppliers and communicates more information to them on a more frequent basis then all other organizations combined. Our magazine reaches over 300,000 readers, a monthly e-newsletter that reaches 2.4 million, and website visitors of 1.2 million a month. It is a leading provider of Supplier Diversity management tools and has the most widely distributed Diversity magazine in the United States.DiversityBusiness.com is produced by Computer Consulting Associates International Inc. (CCAii.com) of Southport , CT. Founded in 1980.













 
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