Wyndham Worldwide Boosts Diversity Spending

With an eye on both U.S. domestic and global growth, Parsippany-based Wyndham Worldwide announced Tuesday it has again surpassed its annual goals in strengthening the diversity of its global supply chain. Over 2012, the company boosted what it spent on diversity initiatives in the previous year by 19 percent.

“As one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, diversity is a fundamental part of how we do business in nearly 100 countries,” says Stephen P. Holmes, Wyndham's chairman and chief executive officer. “Increasing the diversity of our people, including the vendors we partner with, is especially important as we continue to grow around the world, as it provides us with a rich foundation of perspectives and experiences that benefit our company, our customers, and the communities in which we operate.”

With over 100,000 locations in nearly 100 countries, including its headquarters on Sylvan Way, Wyndham Worldwide includes Wyndham Hotel Group, the world’s largest hotel company based on number of properties; Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, the world’s largest member-based vacation exchange network and provider of serviced vacation rentals; and Wyndham Vacation Ownership, the world’s largest vacation ownership business.

Through its supplier diversity program, Wyndham Worldwide includes diverse suppliers when possible in each request for proposal and bid notice, mentors existing and potential suppliers, builds partnerships with each supplier, increases internal and external awareness of its supplier diversity programs and goals, and expands its supply diversity outreach around the globe.

In the U.S., the program focuses on eight groups, including African-American-; Hispanic-American-; Asian-American-; Native-American-; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-; women-; veteran and disabled-veteran-; and disabled-owned businesses. Globally, Wyndham Worldwide is partnering with such organizations as Minority Supplier Development UK and Minority Supplier Development China which work to connect diverse suppliers with corporations, and WEConnect International, which seeks to empower women business owners to succeed in local and global markets.

“At Wyndham Worldwide, we believe in the power of diversity,” said Paul Davis, senior vice president of strategic sourcing. "Every day we see immense value and benefit of varied cultures, experiences and perspectives that allow us to best meet our needs as we continue to grow as a global company, Wyndham Worldwide. Cultivating and expanding diversity throughout the entire company, including our supply partners is one of our core values.”

The corporation's supplier diversity initiative has received numerous accolades, including DiversityInc’s 2012 Top 10 Companies for Supplier Diversity, DiversityPlus magazine’s 2012 Champions of Diversity, Hispanic Network magazine’s “Best of the Best” Top 50 Supplier Diversity Programs for Hispanics, Morris County Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Corporation of the Year and Outstanding Corporate Partner by the Florida Minority Business Opportunity Center.

“As a global business, we aim for our suppliers to be as diverse as the communities we serve,” said Jose Nido, vice president of global supplier diversity. “We take pride in knowing that our supplier diversity program includes many successful diverse-owned businesses that make vital contributions directly to our economy while maintaining a culture at our company that combines individual strengths to help promote better business solutions.”