Joyce Christanio is the manager of supplier diversity at Sprint Nextel. Under her direction, Sprint’s 2009 contract awards to diverse suppliers totaled about $331 million with process transformations to ensure continued growth. In addition, Sprint’s California diversity results grew 10 percent in 2009.

Christanio has helped to implement other measures that benefit diverse suppliers, such as requesting major suppliers subcontract a portion of their annual Sprint revenue to diverse suppliers, create a value-added reseller arrangement with diverse suppliers to meet annual goals or donating 1 percent over $550,000 of annual Sprint-generated revenue to a non-profit diverse organization for scholarships.

Christanio’s greatest challenge is ensuring the entire corporation fully understands the value that supplier diversity adds to Sprint’s bottom-line. She also reminds diverse suppliers to, “Send the elevator back down” and pick up a less fortunate colleague when they are awarded a significant contract with Sprint.

Quote: “Once you are awarded a significant contract with Sprint, “Send the elevator back down” to pick up a less fortunate diverse supplier.”

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