By Dana Roberts • The Cardinal Contributing Writer
“Get to Know a Doylestownian” is a monthly feature in which a Doylestown resident or person of interest helps us get to know them better by finishing sentences we provide; in any way they see fit. Since April is Celebrate Diversity Month, we wanted to highlight a person in the community who strives to honor the differences between us. Bill Hooker, local resident, and leader in the Supplier Diversity field, embraces and champions the importance of diversity on both a personal and professional level. To learn more about what his company offers, visit his website at www.Bill-Hooker.com, and read on to find out his perspective on diversity in the workplace and in our community.
I’ve been working in the supplier diversity field for… over 20 years, as a private practice Supplier Diversity and Supplier Development consultant. My business, of which I am the President, is SourceOne Innovations. It was created to help create, enhance, train, and audit a supplier diversity program in a fraction of the time and expense of alternate approaches. While in “corporate America,” I created a supplier diversity program for a multi-national pharmaceutical company and have helped many other companies, large and small, to create fully functional supplier diversity programs to enable compliance with the customer diverse spend reporting requirements.
Supplier diversity programs, in layman’s terms, is… a proactive business strategy that encourages the use of minority-, women-, veteran/service-disabled-, LGBTQ-, and disability-owned businesses, as suppliers. Supplier diversity is not an entitlement program and only the best supplier, diverse or not, should be awarded business.
I became interested in this because… there is such an overwhelming and not addressed need to help underrepresented and underserved communities grow. Among those communities included are minority-women-LGBTQ-veteran-and disability-owned businesses, commonly referred to as “diverse suppliers”. With rapidly growing attention to assisting these diverse suppliers (and ultimately the communities in which they live) there is a growing list of companies now supporting the creation of supplier diversity programs that enable companies to create a program to bring business awards to qualified suppliers.
My education background is… BA/Biology-Chemistry, MBA/Finance. I am a certified LGBT and Disability Owned business enterprise, a lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager, and an ICF-certified executive coach.
My work week/daily schedule is… dependent on my customers’ needs.
My favorite part of my job is… helping underrepresented and underserved communities and companies join forces with companies to forge lasting business relationships.
The most challenging part of my job is… not having enough hours in the day.
The most interesting part of my job is… meeting prospective customers and designing a program to best fit their needs.
Fields and industries we serve include… health care, pharmaceutical, insurance, banking, utilities, manufacturing, property management, consumer products, food processing, et al.
An industry/business that I’m fascinated by right now is… every single interest that uses our products.
The farthest and most interesting places my work has taken me to is… the UK and working in the healthcare arena.
Diversity for me, on a personal level, is… the satisfaction of playing my part in helping achieve equality amongst all sectors.
A book/television program/movie related to diversity that resonated with me was… reading “Tuesdays with Morrie,” “White Fragility,” and “The Light We Carry.”
I grew up in… Erie, PA, and have lived in NY, FL, OH, and now live with my husband, Mark, in New Britain Township.
My husband and I settled in Bucks County because… we love the country-like setting.
Something I love that Doylestown/Bucks County offers to highlight the importance of diversity is… Doylestown’s support of LGBTQ activities.
Where I feel our community could improve regarding diversity is… to put politics aside when it comes to human needs.
Right now, I’m reading… Spare, by Prince Harry.
My theme song would be… “Special,” by Lizzo.
At the end of the day, I unwind by… meditating.
If I could immerse myself in a different culture, I would choose… indigenous culture.
A place I would theoretically love to live is… Paris/Siesta Key, FL.
With regard to diversity, I hope our local community and global community… genuinely supports difference.
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