Julie kendrick for women's enterprise magazine emily dimenco profile

supplier diversity leadership

WBDC welcomes Emilia DiMenco as new president and CEO

By Julie Kendrick

“When Hedy Ratner and Carol Dougal founded this organization in 1986, they honestly thought that in 25 years, there would no longer be a need for it,” said Emilia DiMenco, president and chief executive officer, Women’s Business Development Center. “And, while those two remarkable women did an outstanding job giving women business owners a voice locally, nationally and internationally, there is still more work to be done. We are very much needed.”

DiMenco is taking the helm of the oldest and largest women’s small business assistance center in the country. It’s an organization that serves a nine-state Midwest region, providing programs and services to startup and established women business owners. She has spent a lifetime preparing for her current role. DiMenco is ready to dive into this new job with the same characteristic energy and commitment she’s brought to previous challenges in her 30-plus year career.

Emilia DiMenco

Breakthrough woman “I came of age in the 60s and 70s, when the measure of success was going into business and succeeding in the corporate world,” said the 59-year-old DiMenco. Determined to become financially independent, she took a position at BMO Harris Bank, eventually becoming the first woman to attain the position of executive vice president in the commercial and corporate bank. DiMenco had responsibility for running lines of businesses and developing initiatives, including those supporting and empowering women-owned businesses.

A new role, slowly DiMenco’s move into her current position was made with significant planning and intention. She spent the past three years working alongside Ratner and Dougal, easing into her new role. “As a banker, I worked with many privately held companies and saw that most of them had trouble with succession planning, often not surviving the loss of a founder. I learned that going slow is okay,” she said. “It was an opportunity for

me, too. I came to WBDC because of choice. I had other options, but this [job] is something I really wanted to do.”

DiMenco credits BMO Harris for the opportunity to spend her first two years at WBDC as a “loaned executive” who remained on the bank’s payroll while working for the nonprofit. While she said that “every business looks simpler from the outside than the inside,” she is clearly relishing the challenges and opportunities inherent in being the organization’s new leader.

“As a banker, I worked with many privately held

companies and saw that most of them had trouble

with succession planning, often not surviving the loss of a founder. I learned that going slow is okay.”

— Emilia DiMenco 40 WE USA Vol. 3, 2013

Strong foundation DiMenco, a first generation U.S. citizen, credits her parents, who emigrated from Italy when she was a child, with “allowing me to live a much more privileged (continued on page 54) www.weusa.biz

supplier diversity leadership (continued from page 40) life than they ever did.” She grew up in a working-class community and spoke Italian at home. “My mother is 86, and I still speak Italian to her,” she said.

Even though DiMenco felt blessed by her strong family foundation, she also observed that her mother, who never worked outside the home, was entirely dependent on her father.

Determined to be independent — especially financially — DiMenco became the first person in her family to go to college, earning a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in business administration, both from DePaul University. She worked full time to pay for her tuition, taking off only during the year she spent studying international finance in Rome, through a program with Loyola University. “That year abroad was a wonderful experience, and some of my closest friends are women I met while studying in Rome,” she said.

Surviving setbacks, celebrating success DiMenco said that she’s had a challenging few years personally, beginning with a breast cancer diagnosis that came during her annual mammogram just a few days after she started working at WBDC. “I had surgeries, radiation and

“Those shifting demographics will certainly contribute to the role of women in the future. Diversity is no longer something that’s anticipated; it’s here.”

— Emilia DiMenco chemotherapy, but I currently show no evidence of disease. I will admit that I do live in fear and that my goal is to be declared cancer-free,” she said. The year after her cancer diagnosis, her sister passed away suddenly at age 49. “Everybody has setbacks, but the difference in outcome is based on how you handle it,” she said.

DiMenco still finds reasons to celebrate life’s happier moments and is obviously proud of the accomplishments of her only child, a 22-year-old son who is graduating in December with a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. “Healthy and happy, that’s all I want for him,” she said.

For-profit savvy in a nonprofit world With DiMenco’s strong background in banking, she brings an excellent skill set to the WBDC at a time when the nonprofit world is, she said, “being impact-

(continued from page 42) Association’s Clean Industry Management Standard, a program similar to ISO certification, tailored specifically for the cleaning/janitorial industry. Furthermore, directly employing cleaning crews and field managers, as opposed to outsourcing the cleaning service to other companies, helps Prestige Maintenance USA maintain control over the client’s end product.

Prestige Maintenance USA has also been WBE-certified since 2006; Sanchez herself serves on the Women’s Business Council Southwest Certification Committee. “We’ve been able to sit down in front of corporate buyers and introduce the company to them,” she said. “I believe that our customers will attest that Prestige Maintenance USA’s excellent service and value proposition speak for themselves. We are constantly improving on a national scale, and the fact that we are a WBE certified company is icing on the cake for some our customers.”

She said other keys to business success involve surrounding oneself with trusted people – “don’t go it alone,” she said – and to find mentors. “For me, I’m in the family business, and my parents were the best mentors,” she said. “But it was also important for me to have folks on the outside to talk to, who have an unbiased perspective.”

54 WE USA Vol. 3, 2013

ed just like the for-profit world always has been. And, while WBDC has always had excellent metrics and accountability, grant providers increasingly want to know about the economic impacts of what we’re doing.” She hopes to provide valuable “crossover” knowledge of practices and disciplines for measuring success. “The WBDC has always been cutting-edge, and we’re continuing to be exemplary in accounting to those who fund us,” she added.

What’s ahead?

As DiMenco looks toward the next 25 years for the WBDC, she notes that more than 50 percent of college graduates are women and more than 50 percent of households are run by single women.

“Those shifting demographics will certainly contribute to the role of women in the future. Diversity is no longer something that’s anticipated; it’s here,” she concluded. •

And Prestige Maintenance USA is walking the talk of supplier diversity. “In 2012, we launched our own supplier diversity program, and it’s been a huge success,” Sanchez said. “We’re on track to exceed our 2013 goals.” She said that the goal for this year is that 5 percent of the spend would be directed to WBEs and MBEs – so far the company has directed 7 percent of its spend to MBEs and WBEs. Even with corporate successes, Sanchez isn’t ready to rest on her laurels. At this point, she and her brother are working on ways to better measure service quality. “We did this the old way before, where our managers in the field would collect information, sit down at a laptop and plug it in,” Sanchez said. These days, she went on to say, the field managers can upload information and photos directly, on site, with the use of tablets, while customizing feedback surveys for different clients. “Improvement is a continual process,” Sanchez observed. “That’s important.”

Though Sanchez’s original goal of working in an office building turned out somewhat differently than she’d envisioned, she wouldn’t change her current spot. She has a great relationship with her brother and her parents, all of which is built on trust. “We grew up that way,” she said. “Because we have the family relationship, the trust is stronger. Family will have your back, no matter what.” • www.weusa.biz