Ricoh Honored For Support of Minority & Women-Owned Buss

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Ricoh Honored For Support of Minority & Women-Owned Businesses
DiversityPlus Magazine Honors Ricoh Exec for Company’s Support of Minority and Women-Owned Businesses ‘2012 Top 30 Champion of Diversity’ award for Christina Morrow recognizes Ricoh’s efforts to support diverse suppliers

MALVERN, Pa., Nov., 2012  A key purchasing executive for Ricoh Americas Corporation has been named a 2012 Top 30 Champion of Diversity by DiversityPlus Magazine, one of the nation’s leading diversity magazines with an international readership of more than 114,000.

The award was given to Christina Morrow, Senior Manager of Purchasing and Supplier Diversity for Ricoh Americas Corporation. It recognizes leaders who have developed and implemented innovative strategies reflecting best internal and external practices to help increase participation of minority and women-owned businesses (MWBEs) as suppliers in the national and global economies.

"We’re committed to our corporate citizenship, which includes forming relationships and partnerships with diverse suppliers. By partnering with minority/women-owned and small businesses, we can work toward achieving our corporate vision while helping these businesses thrive," said Donna Venable, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Ricoh Americas Corporation and Chair for Ricoh’s Corporate Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility Council. "Furthermore, we’re honored by this award as we believe that as a result of these mutually beneficial relationships, Ricoh is able to exceed our customers’ expectations, add value to our products and services, meet our business goals and provide economic benefits to the communities in which we do business."

After assuming her current position in 2010, Morrow was tasked with several initiatives designed to:

• Increase Ricoh’s supplier diversity spend by 8 percent in the first year;
• Enhance the visibility of Ricoh’s diversity program among MWBEs;
• Promote partnership opportunities to MWBEs and small non-minority businesses;
• Increase the program’s visibility within Ricoh by leading cross-functional meetings among sales teams responding to customer RFP requirements; and
• Automate and streamline the supplier diversity program to ensure accurate reporting.

As part of these efforts, Morrow collaborated with Human Resources and the Corporate Diversity and Social Responsibility Council on the company’s primary focus of promoting and leveraging the business case for diversity and social responsibility, both internally and externally. 

"I’m thrilled with the honor from such a respected publication in our industry," Morrow said. "The award recognizes the significance of our work to increase diversity as well as the support these efforts have received from Ricoh management and employees. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and are committed to building on the progress we’ve made."

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November 8, 2012 at 8:01 AM