More than 300 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) vendors/suppliers, employees and other stakeholders attended the company’s 10th Annual Supplier Diversity Achievement Awards ceremony, held recently at BCBSM’s Lyon Meadows Conference Center in New Hudson, Mich. The morning event was convened to honor BCBSM’s many successful partnerships and collaborations with diverse suppliers through its procurement process. This year again recognized the power of diverse suppliers and their impact, not only to BCBSM, but to Michigan’s economy and population health, as well.
Awards were presented in 12 categories, including Blues Leader Supplier Diversity Champion Achievement Award, Supplier Diversity Champion Achievement Award, Health Care Value Diverse Supplier Achievement Award, Buyer Achievement Award, Team Project Award, Business Unit Award, Procurement Supplier Diversity Champion, Accident Fund-Diverse Supplier Achievement Award, Lifesecure – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award, New Diverse Supplier of the Year Award, Diverse Supplier Achievement Award – Women Business Enterprise (WBE), and Diverse Supplier Achievement Award – Minority Business Enterprise (MBE).
“It is truly an honor to receive the Lifesecure – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award,” said Sarah Ayala Jones, president and owner of Southfield-based Michigan Office Design, Inc., a company that specializes in planning, designing and installing office space, and has been a supplier to BCBSM for two decades. “We won because we helped Lifesecure, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, with its space planning and managing, in terms of being able to accommodate the company’s many employees.”
Equally excited to be honored was Juliet Shrader, president and CEO of iVantage Group, a talent acquisition supplier based in Brighton, Mich. “I am very excited,” said Shrader, whose company won the Accident Fund – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award. “This is the first time that we’ve received an award like this. We started our partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield about three years ago, and we take pride in the business that we do. This award is given because we have some outstanding salespeople that take good care of our clients. It means that we find diversity as something that we want to promote. ”
“This celebration of partnership, achievement and promotion of diversity by our suppliers and Blue Cross employees is even better than an Oscar or Emmy,” said Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. “As we celebrate this milestone in supplier diversity partnering, it is a great feeling to know that Blue Cross has been there to help businesses grow, in many cases, from the ground up. It is an even better feeling to know that our partnerships — aligned and built upon accountability, commitment and execution — are getting stronger each year.”
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit mutual insurance company, is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSM provides and administers health benefits to more than 4.4 million members residing in Michigan.
“As a valued partner to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, it’s an honor to continue to add value with Accenture, who has been a partner of ours, both in and out of Michigan,” said Eric Hardy, president and CEO of w3r consulting, a Southfield-based technology and staffing consulting company, whose team received the Team Project (HIPS) Award. “So coming together to add value to Blue Cross Blue Shield is something that we talked about for about two years, and we finally found a way to put a team together to do that. So the award is in recognition of that effort.”
The complete list of winners for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s 10th Annual Supplier Diversity Achievement Awards are as follows:
New Diverse Supplier of the Year Award: Accurate Background, Inc.
Accident Fund Holdings Inc. – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award: iVantage Group
Blues Leader – Supplier Diversity Champion Achievement Award: Joe Fritsch
Business Unit Award: BCBSM Corporate Communications
Buyer Achievement Award: Kimberly Krueger
Diverse Supplier Achievement Award – Minority Business Enterprise: Moore Trosper Construction Company
Diverse Supplier Achievement Award – Women Business Enterprise: Gongos
Health Care Value – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award: J & B Medical Supply Company
LifeSecure – Diverse Supplier Achievement Award: Michigan Office Design
Procurement Supplier Diversity Champion Awards: Janessa Huston-Banks
Supplier Diversity Champion Achievement Award: Genpact-Jawood Healthcare Solutions
Team Project Award: HIPS Team – Accenture and w3r Consulting
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