The Northwest Mountain Minority Supplier Council selected Seattle City Light as its Public Agency of the Year for 2013 and chose Javier Valdez, a strategic advisor in the utility’s corporate performance unit, for its Champion Award.
Valdez leads City Light’s program to encourage purchasing and contracting from historically underutilized businesses and women- or minority-owned businesses (HUB/WMBE). In 2013, City Light spent $20.9 million on contracts and purchasing with such businesses, which represented 16.6 percent of its nearly $126 million of total spending on contracts and purchases. It was the highest percentage of spending with HUB/WMBE vendors that the utility has recorded.
This is the third time Valdez has received the council’s Champion Award in the past six years.
The council serves the states of Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming as part of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, headquartered in New York City.
Here is the announcement from the council.
NORTHWEST MOUNTAIN MINORITY SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL ANNUAL AWARDS
SEATTLE, WASH. – The Northwest Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council (MSDC) honored four outstanding individuals and seven distinguished organizations at its annual awards dinner and business conference on March 6 – 7, 2014. The two day event was held at the Bellevue Hilton and was attended by more than 250 professionals from across the country.
The following awards were presented:
- The John A. Gilmore Award to Shahzad Qadri, Partner at Wong Fleming Attorney.
- The Robert L. Ryan Award to Robert L. Ryan, the first Executive Director of the Council in 1976.
- The Champion Award to Javier Valdez, Program Manager/Strategic Advisor to the Historically Underutilized Business Program at the Seattle City Light and Vicky Schiantarelli, Strategic Advisory to WMBE Coordination at the Seattle Public Utilities.
- Class I Supplier of the Year Award to Pacific Communications Consultants, Inc. (annual sales of $1M-$10M).
- Class II Supplier of the Year Award to Magellan Architects (annual sales of $1M-$10M).
- Class III Supplier of the Year Award to General Microsystems Inc. (annual sales of $10M-$50M).
- Class IV Supplier of the Year Award to World Wide Technology, Inc. (annual sales more than $50M).
- Public Agency of the Year Award to Seattle City Light.
- Regional Corporation of the Year Award to T-Mobile.
- National Corporation of the Year Award to the Boeing Company.
The dinner program included a silent auction, which raised approximately $13,000 for the Northwest Mountain MSDC Academic Scholarship Fund, which provides education funding for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
Jerry Fuentes, president of AT&T Inc. Arizona/New Mexico, delivered the keynote dinner address. Fuentes spoke about the current shift from a device centric world to solution centric world and also encouraged MBEs to bring value proposition and innovation to the table. Nelson Reyneri, Jr. Vice President, Sales and External Affairs at Liberty Power, delivered the keynote luncheon address. Reyneri provided insightful advice on the keys to MBE success including understanding risk and scale, earning trust, and learning how to be being humble, hungry and smart.
Northwest Minority Supplier Development Council
For 36 years, the Northwest Mountain MSDC has been linking major corporations and public agencies to minority-owned businesses, a multi-billion dollar sector representing and impacting today’s global economy. The Northwest Mountain MSDC currently serves the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. For more information on Northwest Mountain MSDC, please visit http://www.nwmtnmsdc.org.