I’m excited to report that our CEO Michael Dell will be chairing Dell’s global diversity council. This underscores our company’s commitment to diversity at the most senior levels of the company. Quite simply, diversity is a business imperative for us.
The council reviews policies, action plans and progress to ensure Dell continues to leverage diversity to its competitive advantage and that it’s integrated throughout our business. The group also consults customers, business partners and employees for global best practices and standards and feedback.
Dell’s diversity programs give us access to the broadest pool of employees, which the company needs to meet the demands of its growing customer base. Today we have good representation of diverse leaders in our ranks. We recognize, of course, that this is always unfinished business. Currently, nearly 30 percent of U.S.-based vice presidents, and about 38 percent of U.S. managers, are women or people of color. And 25 percent of managers around the globe are women. We’ll continue to recruit diverse talent and offer diverse employees tools to promote advancement, such as our Career Management Program, which includes executive networking and coaching.
Our commitment extends to working with diverse suppliers and reaching a diverse customer base. Dell will spend approximately $2.5 billion this year with small minority and women-owned companies – a 66 percent increase over the past four years. These diverse partners of today are our leading small business customers of tomorrow. Small minority and women-owned businesses are increasing IT spend faster than almost any other business sector; we want Dell to be their IT partner of choice.
The diversity council consists of six executives, including three from the company’s executive leadership team. The members are:
- Paul Bell, president, Dell Americas;
- Kevin Brown, Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer;
- David Marmonti, president Dell Europe, Middle East and Africa;
- Amit Midha, president Dell Greater China;
- Stephen Schuckenbrock, president of global services and Chief Information Officer; and,
- Jan Uhrich, vice president, Dell Global Commercial Support Services.
The group is scheduled to meet later this year. It will report progress to Dell’s executive leadership team regularly. I look forward to sharing feedback with you in the future.