DiversityInc - November/December 2008

leadership
THE CASE FOR SUPPLIER DIVERSITY: AETNA’S JOSEPH BLACK

If you get Joseph Black, Aetna’s chief procurement officer, talking about the business imperative for supplier diversity, his passion shines through. “It’s important to understand how strategically supplier diversity impacts your own particular company, whether it’s one that touches individual consumers or that does business-to-business,” Black says.

He’s helping Aetna with initiatives that target urban markets, such as Chicago, Miami and New York. “When those communities see you investing in their well-being through utilizing their suppliers within their markets, that’s a tremendous validation of Aetna’s brand,” Black says.

A new plan will require that by 2011, all Aetna suppliers must provide access to healthcare benefits to their employees. This will most dramatically impact small vendors, many of which are minority- and women-owned. “We see this as our charge of helping to shape the quality of healthcare in America,” Black says, emphasizing that what’s important is to provide the

benefits, regardless of whether they are from Aetna.

Black received a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Cornell University and started designing buildings for Aetna.

He realized he had more ability

to effect change, so he pursued

JOSEPH BLACK

an MBA from the University

Aetna, one of DiversityInc’s 25

of Connecticut and discovered

Noteworthy Companies

the world of procurement.

Black left Aetna in 2001 to work in a construction-management firm and then a woman-owned real-estate consultancy. In 2005, he came back to Aetna as chief procurement officer.

A challenge was getting Aetna’s top management to understand the long-term importance of supplier diversity. “A big part of our focus was translating the language of supplier diversity out of procurement language and into the language of the business,” he says.

DIVERSIFYING EDUCATION’S TOP RANKS: DR. MICHAEL OSNATO

Growing up, Dr. Michael Osnato didn’t have a set career path. While the Bronx, N. Y., native had many family members in the law profession, he was never passionate about it. “I was going to go to law

DR. MICHAEL OSNATO
school at St. John’s [University
Seton Hall University
in New York], but I really
wasn’t ecstatic about that,” he

says. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I decided I would teach until I decided what I wanted to do.”

Unbeknownst to him, that short time would turn into more than 35 years in education.

“After I started teaching, I was quickly moved up,” he says. But as he climbed the ranks of the public-education system, Osnato noticed a lack of diversity among principals and superintendents.

“There was old-style ethnic politics going on,” he says. “I knew that we needed to focus on getting the

best people in these leadership positions, regardless of race.”

Today, as the director of Seton Hall University’s Institute for Educational Leadership, Osnato is doing just that. “We are a not-for-profit dedicated to improving diversity and leadership in public schools, both regionally and nationally,” he says. “And in addition to the academic programs of the university, we help attract and retain people from traditionally underrepresented groups who aspire to leadership positions.”

The institute has been successful in recruiting and retaining more women to principal and superintendent positions, but Osnato admits education still has a long way to go in getting over racial barriers. He says, “Getting Blacks and Latinos placed in majority Caucasian neighborhoods is our next frontier.”

But he is as hopeful and as passionate as ever. “I think eventually we will see people rising to the top based on their skill sets,” he says. “When I first started, I got hooked, and I’m still hooked.”