Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services continues to work toward the goals outlined in an ambitious three-phase plan that aims to double the percentage of local and minority-owned business partnering with UVA and raise University spending with local businesses by 10% by 2025.
The plan, which you can read more about in detail on UVAToday, was developed in partnership with the University of Virginia's Local Economy Working Group.
Mark Cartwright, Director of Supplier Diversity, explains that as a part of the plan, the approximately 300 local certified small, women, and minority-owned businesses with which UVA currently does not have a working relationship will be analyzed, surveyed, and triaged to determine the best path forward in the business relationship.
Says Cartwright, "it's a matter of determining whether they provide products or services that the university procures, whether they have interest in doing business with UVA and whether they have the capacity and scale to work with UVA. For those businesses with an interest in selling to the university but lacking current capacity, we’ll try to connect them to the appropriate resources to get them better prepared to service the university.”
Using the information collected during the early stage of the project, Supplier Diversity will then take some concrete steps with UVA's schools and business units to reach the goals set out in the plan. Cartwright and his team have plans for outreach across Grounds that include sharing data, making connections, and increasing visibility within the SWaM business community.
The UVA community can expect more useful developments resulting from this plan as 2022 draws to a close and 2023 begins.
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Related Content: The President's Council on UVA/Community Partnerships