Diversity Spend:
What Are The Numbers Truly Showing Us?
Why community-based organizations like NAMCO are key
to growing diversity spend
By Writer Jodie Tweed
Best practices should be the guide for Fortune
companies to measure the success of their
supplier diversity procurement programs. When
Douglas Phason reads through the diversity spend
data reported voluntarily each year by thirty-four
of California’s largest utility companies, he’s
looking for more than just the numbers
generated within the database.
Phason, who serves as Supplier Diversity
Officer at the California Public Utilities
Commission, is looking deeper into what the data
doesn’t report. Phason spoke to DyNAMC about his
role within the CPUC, as well as his work finding
and breaking down the barriers for diverse firms
interested in procurement opportunities with
Fortune companies nationally.
Several years ago, Phason
was diagnosed with cancer.
Soon after, he began to look
for a way to give back to the
community. He had spent
thirty-one years with AT&T,
retiring as associate director
for Regulatory Affairs; an
opportunity arose for him, in
2004, to become a Supplier
Diversity Officer at the CPUC;
a job that has become a
passion for Phason.
Douglas Phason
“Through supplier diversity,
I found my life vocation,”
Phason shared with DyNAMC.
“That’s how I deemed giving
back to the community
through this work.”A large
part of Phason’s duties within
the CPUC is to promote
the commission’s supplier
diversity program, which was
enacted through legislation
almost thirty years ago. It
authorized the CPUC to enact
a program that requires all
California public utilities that
generated more than $25
million in annual revenues,
to set up their own supplier
diversity programs. The intent
is for outreach to minority,
women and disabled veteranowned businesses interested
in procurement opportunities
within their companies.
Phason said the supplier
diversity program is voluntary,
and it has grown through