leadership
AVIS YATES RIVERS: A PIONEER IN TECHNOLOGY
BY LAURA LEBLANC | © 2008 DIVERSITYINC
“I am the first African-American woman-owned
company in this industry. So, with that, I would have
to say yes, I am a trailblazer,” says Avis Yates Rivers,
president and CEO of Technology Concepts Group,
Inc. (TCGI), an information-technology consulting
firm based in Somerset, N.J., that offers professional
services, technical services and equipment leasing.
TCGI is a third-party-certified WMBE.
A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Yates
Rivers started her first business 23 years ago, after
working for Exxon Corp. for 11 years. Since then,
she has built and sold several companies before
launching TCGI, which she describes as a “full-service
technology-solutions firm.”
“What that means is we’re able to support
[our clients] … from the original acquisition of
equipment, competitive financing throughout a lease
term, managed services throughout the technology’s
life cycle, and then disposition at the end of the
technology’s life cycle,” she says.
Yates Rivers is also a
recognized pioneer in the
industry, having been named
Entrepreneur of the Year by
the YMCA, as well as one of
the Top 25 African-American
Women in Business by The
Network Journal magazine,
and one of the Top 10 Women in Technology by
Enterprising Women magazine. And
though she’s overcome many challenges along the
way, she sees her race and gender as an advantage.
AVIS YATES RIVERS
Technology Concepts
Group, Inc.
“I always position myself in a position of strength
because I think I have a competitive advantage,”
says Yates Rivers. “I have a diverse thought. I have a
diverse perspective. I have a corporate background as
do many of the people that I am trying to sell to. So
I can deal with them on that level and deal with a lot
of senior managers in corporate America.”
GIVING BACK: NATIONAL BLACK MBA ASSOCIATION’S BILL WELLS
BY YOJI COLE | © 2008 DIVERSITYINC
Bill Wells has spent decades
in corporate America holding
positions in information technology, marketing, strategic
planning, operations and business development. Throughout
the years, he has been most
BILL WELLS pleased with his career when
National Black MBA serving others.
Association That is the charge Wells
takes to in his positions as
chairman of the National Black MBA Association
(NBMBAA) and president of W. Wells & Associates,
a management-consulting firm that specializes in
diversity strategy, development for inclusion, human
resources, and recruitment and retention.
Wells remembers his first foray into diversity efforts.
It was the mid-1970s when “diversity” wasn’t the word
of choice. He helped organize a movement of employees now labeled “employee-resource groups.” Then,
meetings were held at his house because employees
feared spending company time. “Those were different
days,” says Wells, adding that now diversity is critical to
business strategies.
“Business people can’t always see the link between
human-resource plans, but they know business plans,
and diversity is business. It’s about people and the
power they bring to a business. It’s about their performance supporting the bottom line and bringing
results,” says Wells.
When Wells arrived in Minneapolis, the NBMBAA
saw a high-level Black executive whose visibility and
storied history with diversity could bring results to
the organization.
Wells got to work coproducing for the local Multicultural Forum, a two-day diversity conference. As president of the Twin Cities NBMBAA chapter, a position to
which he was elected, he helped create the Minnesota
Boulevard Consortium, a recruiting initiative between
major corporations in the Twin Cities.
