Hall of Fame Legends

PASSING THE TORCH TO PARITY

As the key driver of minority business development for 40 years and counting in Michigan, MMSDC is the home of the Michigan Minority Business Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was created to ensure that iconic Michiganders are celebrated for the indelible imprint they’ve made on minority businesses that are driving the state’s economy while empowering communities that are often left behind. This year, MMSDC honors a class of ten trailblazers comprised of iconic MBEs and corporate leaders who ignited the torch that this evening’s Ambassadors now carry. These Hall of Fame Legends have made a legendary transformational impact on the history Michigan’s minority business growth.

PASSING THE TORCH TO PARITY

J. DAVID ALLEN

Director of Supplier Development General Motors

JOHN BARTH

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Johnson Controls (retired)

J. David Allen retired from General Motors where he was the Executive Director for Africa and the Middle East and is renowned for his work with minority suppliers through his position as Director of GM’s Supplier Diversity Group and as Vice President of GM’s Motor Enterprise Inc.

While at GM Mr. Allen championed joint ventures and strategic alliances between minority suppliers and GM’s Tier 1 suppliers. GM increased their spend with minority suppliers in 1999 from $2.2 Billion to an unprecedented $4.0 Billion in 2001. In the same year GM Tier 1 suppliers procured an additional $1.1 Billion from minority suppliers. He credits GM, Harold Kutner, Vice President, and his Purchasing Group as well as the Supplier Diversity Staff, for helping support, implement and achieve these record setting minority purchasing goals.

Allen retired in 2002 and established Populus Group, a Human Resources Joint Venture with Allegis Group. He retired from Populus Group and is currently active in international trade consulting.

John M. Barth’s career at Johnson Controls began when he joined the corporation as an industrial engineer in 1969. Over the next 38 years, he held several positions until 2002, when started to serve as Chief Executive Officer. After retirement, Mr. Barth continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Throughout his professional career, John Barth has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to supplier diversity. Within the Diversity Business Development model at Johnson Controls, John Barth was devoted to utilizing diverse suppliers, including companies that are owned by minorities and women in the United States, and internationally, firms that are historically underutilized in their local country.

John Barth also offered his extensive business and leadership experience as a member of several boards, including Adient, as well as Vice Chairman of the MMBDC Board of Directors, and Chairman of NMSDC. Among his many accolades, John has been named Best CEO, and received awards from Milwaukee NAACP, Milwaukee Urban League, and NMSDC.

DEVON

INDUSTRIAL GRP.

PASSING THE TORCH TO PARITY

TONY BROWN

Senior Vice President, Global Purchasing Ford Motor Company (retired)

RENALDO (RAY) JENSEN

Director of Supplier Diversity

Ford Motor Company (retired)

In August 2013, Tony Brown retired as group vice president of purchasing at Ford Motor Co., where he was instrumental in the company’s turnaround. In this position, Tony managed approximately $90 billion of production and non-production goods and services for operations worldwide.

Tony is best known for his work during the auto crisis, when Ford mortgaged nearly everything, to avoid bankruptcy. He helped launch a secret initiative called Project Quark, a partnership with Toyota Motor Corp. to prop up the struggling supply base.

Prior to joining Ford in 1999, Tony held a variety of senior supply chain and purchasing leadership positions, including and executive director of purchasing and transportation for QMS, Inc., a maker and provider of networked enterprise printing solutions.

Brown was previously elected in 2019 to the Michigan Minority Business Hall of Fame and has also been honored by Rainbow/PUSH with the “Keep Hope Alive” award, and by the National Action Network as a recipient of the “Keeper of the Dream” award.

Renaldo (Ray) Jensen retired in late 2005 as Director of Ford Supplier Diversity Development (SDD) after 27 years with the corporation. Since 1987, he led the company’s supplier diversity program, which in 2004 purchased $3.7 billion in goods and services from 309 minority suppliers. Jensen grew supplier diversity at Ford to make it the program other Fortune 500 company benchmark.

Ray, who holds a PhD in Engineering, was the first African American faculty member at the Air Force Institute of Technology. In 1978, he was recruited by Ford Motor Company to head up their Aerodynamics Design Center. Ultimately, Jensen accepted the position as Director of Supplier Diversity at Ford, which made him responsible for providing support and resources to minority suppliers.

Jensen has won every award given to individuals by the Minority Supplier Development Council. Jensen wants his legacy to be that he showed people that they can be effective while being creditable and honest.

BURT JORDAN

Vice President, Global Vehicle and Indirect Purchasing and Supply Chain Sustainability Ford Motor Company (retired)

JETHRO JOSEPH

Senior Executive, Diversity Supplier Development

Chrysler (now Stellantis) (retired)

Burt Jordan retired from Ford Motor Company during the summer of 2020. Prior to retiring, Jordan was the vice president, Global Purchasing Operations and Supply Chain Sustainability.

Prior to this role, Jordan was elected a corporate officer and named vice president, Global Vehicle and Powertrain Purchasing and Supplier Diversity, in 2013. Jordan was responsible for all commodity-related purchasing and supplier sourcing around the world.

Jordan also oversaw Supplier Diversity Development and Global Supply Risk Management. Jordan spent several years (Sept. 2001 – Oct 2004) working with Ford and Mazda purchasing in Asia. He joined Ford in 1999 after stints with General Motors, Toyota and United Technologies.

Jordan’s outstanding commitment to diversity was recognized by Automotive News, which named him an “All-Star for Minority Business.” Jordan was also elected in 2019 to the Michigan Minority Business Hall of Fame and in 2020 he was named Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) of the Year by the National Minority Business Development Council (NMSDC).

Jethro Joseph retired from Chrysler where he served as the Sr. Executive Director for Supplier Diversity. He was instrumental in the inclusion of supplier diversity reporting as part of the Terms and Conditions of doing business with Chrysler. The supplier diversity program became award winning under his leadership and admired for their annual MatchMaker Event that provides diverse suppliers the opportunity to meet with Tier 1 suppliers and Chrysler buyers. MatchMaker has generated $4Billion in new business opportunity.

Mr. Joseph served on the board for many organizations including NMSDC, MMSDC, Diversity Information Resources, the Business Consortium Fund, Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Billion Dollar Roundtable, Chrysler’s African American Network, the Native American Business Alliance, Morris Brown College National Alumni Association, Health Alliance Plan and Hartford Memorial Baptist Church.

Mr. Joseph is the owner of Joseph and Associates LLC which provides supplier diversity development services to national and local organizations and corporations, as well as financial and strategic planning services.

PASSING THE TORCH TO PARITY

HAROLD KUTNER

Group Vice President, Worldwide Purchasing, General Motors (retired)

CARLOS MAZZORIN

Group Vice President, Global Purchasing, and South American and Asia Pacific Operations

Ford Motor Company (retired)

Harold R. Kutner worked at General Motors as head of procurement departments in many GM locations. His last position was Group Vice President of Worldwide Purchasing and Production Control. In this position, Harold oversaw the procurement of goods and services over billions of dollars with a passion for helping minority and women businesses enter and succeed in supplying goods and services to General Motors. He also served many years as president and vice chairman of the Michigan Minority Supplier council and the National Minority Supplier Council. People special to him for supporting his objectives were J David Allen, mayor Dennis Archer, Ron Hall past leader of MMSDC, Harriet Michel president of NMSDC, John Barth a great GM supplier, Bill Packard, and many others who furthered his vision.

Special thanks to Judy Kutner who stayed at Harold’s side during many days and nights away from home. Harold now resides in Jupiter Fl with many happy memories.

A native of Argentina, Mazzorin spent 13 years at General Motors Corp. before joining Ford in 1972 and retiring in 2002 after 30 years with the company.

His first job at Ford was as a purchasing procurement analyst. He climbed the ranks in a series of purchasing assignments, rising to vice president of global purchasing, a responsibility he retained when he later was named group vice president for South American Operations and subsequently Asia Pacific Operations in November 2001.

Mazzorin most recently spent eight years at Ontario, Canadabased Magna International. From 2007 to 2010, Mazzorin served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Magna Electronics, Inc. Prior to that, beginning in 2002, he served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Magna Mirrors.

Mazzorin graduated from General Motors Institute of Technology (today Kettering University) after completing a two-year supply chain studies program. He also completed Business Administration studies in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ROBERT (BOB) ROSSITER

Chairman and CEO

Lear Corporation (posthumous)

Detroit, MI native Robert E. Rossiter served Lear Corporation for four decades and was an exceptional leader and a driving force in building Lear Corporation into a world-class global company. Bob held positions of increasing responsibility until he was ultimately promoted to Chief Executive Officer, a position he held for the last 11 years of his career at Lear.

Bob fostered a culture of industry leading customer service, continuous improvement, the highest level of integrity and support of the communities where Lear does business. These core values are the foundation of Lear’s rich culture that continue to guide Lear today.

Under his leadership, Lear grew from a small U.S. based supplier to a multibillion dollar leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical distribution systems. In addition to his many career accomplishments, Bob’s contributions to the community included serving on numerous charitable boards, support of hundreds of charitable causes and pledges of millions in financial support to worthy causes worldwide.

Thomas Sidlik’s almost fifty-year career in the automotive industry began at Ford Motor Company and continued at Chrysler at the start of Lee Iacocca’s leadership there. He held various leadership positions in Finance, Engineering, Sales & Marketing, Quality, Procurement & Supply and became a Member of the Management Board of DaimlerChrysler AG.

While he was head of Procurement & Supply, DaimlerChrysler was named Corporation of the Year numerous times by MMSDC as well as NMSDC for its efforts to support and grow minority owned businesses. Mr. Sidlik took a leadership role in both organizations as Chairman of the Michigan Council and Vice-Chairman of the NMSDC, as well as Chairman of National’s Executive Committee.

In his retirement, he has served on many boards including Delphi, Cooper-Standard, the Board Regents of Eastern Michigan University, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Council.

He holds degrees from New York University and The University of Chicago.

THOMAS W. SIDLIK

Executive Vice President, Global Procurement & Supply DaimlerChrysler (retired)