Empowering Diversity Suppliers at Atrium Health

By Uniqua Quillins

Atrium Health is using its mission to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing for all in a new, innovative way that will empower diverse suppliers across Charlotte. Later this year, the healthcare company will launch their Center for Supplier Diversity and Entrepreneurship. It is a resource hub for diverse and minority entrepreneurs, equipping them with the tools and education they need to scale their businesses and secure contracts with Atrium Health and other large companies within Charlotte.

Supplier diversity may be a new concept for some. However, it is a strategic business operation that encourages and advocates for the use of suppliers and service providers that are minority-owned, Black-owned, woman-owned, veteran-owned and LGBTQ+ owned. Historically, many companies in these categories are underutilized and Atrium Health is leading the way to change that.

Manwell Bynum is the Head of Business Acceleration for Atrium Health and leads the center. He said the center will offer aspiring companies an electronic resource library that includes presentations, business plans, templates and even peer-to-peer discussion forums. Suppliers will also have access to consultations on capacity building and obtaining financial assistance. Bynum, as an entrepreneur himself, knows first-hand how challenging it is and how important it is for minority-owned businesses to get support with scaling their companies.

“Everybody is at different stages and a lot of times minority companies don’t get an opportunity to work with a company the size of an Atrium Health because they just don’t have the resources, they don’t have enterprise capacity. So, we will engage them in an ecosystem where we can provide them with support to grow,” Bynum said.

The center will operate at the PORTAL (Partnership, Outreach and Research to Accelerate Learning) on the University of North Carolina–Charlotte's campus. PORTAL is also home to the National Institute Economic Development Women’s Business Center of Charlotte, NXT/CLT, City Startup Labs and BLKTECHCLT, all of which create, build, develop, incubate, accelerate, capitalize and scale sustainable minority owned companies.

“I don’t think there’s another company in the country right now that is bold enough to actually insert their supplier diversity department inside of an ecosystem. I think this is game changing. I think we’re pioneering a new way of investing in supplier diversity,” said Bynum.

Conrad Emmerich, Enterprise Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management and Chief Procurement Officer for Atrium Health as well as President and Chief Executive Officer for Atrium Health Supply Chain Alliance, said the center is important because it allows Atrium Health to spend dollars within the communities that the company serves and in turn creates local wealth. “One of our main interests was being able to look at our zip codes where we do business in our communities. If it’s in Charlotte, if it’s in Winston-Salem, Macon or in Rome — what are those zip codes that we service and how much of our spend goes back into those zip codes,” he said.

Not only is Atrium Health empowering diverse suppliers, the company is also empowering other companies within Charlotte who may want to increase their engagement with diverse suppliers. Fernando Little, Atrium Health’s Enterprise Chief Diversity Officer, said he is excited about that possibility. “If this center can become a blueprint for other organizations to strengthen their supplier diversity strategies and how they reach out to minority owned companies — we’re hoping to influence that as well.” P