10-1 Denver room - USBLN Conference: 2018conference.usbln.org/...2013/...Strategies_CART.docx · Web viewin the daytoday operations. One of the things we think first and foremost

TRANSCRIPT US BUSINESS LEADERS NETWORK

BREAKOUT SESSIONDENVER ROOM

OCTOBER 1, 20131:30 PM PST

Access: Best Practices and Strategies of Buyers/Supplier Diversity Professionals

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********This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.********

>> GLORIA PUALANI: Good afternoon. I'm Gloria Pualani. We're really pleased that you've joined us this afternoon to have some very frank discussion around supplier diversity in the USBLN community. So we're really pleased you are here. It's pretty broad in its scope. In summary, it requires these institutions, these entities, to ensure that diversity and inclusion are present in all aspects of their business.

So I was hired by HFSA in November of 2009. One of the very first things I was tasked to work on was to implement the regulation for this statutory requirement, and we did. We published a post-regulation in December of 2009. And we published a final regulation in December of 2010. This regulation lays out the requirements. The statute required that the institutions have offices of minority and women inclusion. In the regulatory process, one of the things that my agency did, and I'm very pleased with, was take it another step, and to include disabled-owned businesses in the regulatory requirements as well as the employment of individuals with disabilities.

And so all these GSE's, government sponsored enterprises, are required to have minority women included, and they're required to ensure that diversity and inclusion are in all aspects of the

© 2013 US Business Leadership Network. All rights reserved. 1

process in the day-to-day operations. One of the things we think first and foremost is workforce

diversity, and the institutions are required, of course, to have proactive outreach to women, minorities and the disabled and their employment practices. But they're also required to have robust programs in procurement and contracting. And one aspect of that program is outreach to individual’s -- disabled-owned businesses. And so as the regulatory agency, we oversee their operations, their activities in their offices, the institutions are required to provide, develop, and provide annual reports to our agency, and one of the things that we're currently is working on, we're developing examination standards. We've been participating in a listening tool where we've been going to the institutions, going to advocacy groups, various organizations since we started in April and we're still in the process, but we're getting information. So we can develop examination standards.

So it's one thing to have a regulation that says do this. It's another thing to have standards to say if -- what am I doing? Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing enough? Am I moving this initiative forward? And so that's what we're in the process of developing, too.

That in essence is really why we're here. We want to move this initiative forward. It is -- I'll be honest with you. It's a challenge. A lot of individuals, a lot of entities, they know about workforce diversity. Not necessarily saying they do the best job, but I'm not saying they don't, but it's something that they know a lot about. But in procurement, that's been a learning curve. Disability, disabled-owned business procurement is even higher bar to achieve. And so there's a lot of information and a lot of education. There are a lot of practices that need to be put in place, and the institutions are in the process of doing that.

We're in the process as an agency of ensuring that that gets done. And so that's why I'm here.

>> Well, I represent the prime contracting community. And we've had the statutory requirements for small business, minority business, women-owned HUBS, you heard that in an earlier session, and veterans and disabled veterans. In the last five years, Department of Defense launched another initiative, and it's relative to Ability 1. And I know that most of you in the room know what Ability 1 is. If you don't, I'll just give you a little bit of information. The National Institute of the Severely Handicapped merged and became Ability 1. They have provided a tremendous amount of jobs for our returning wounded warriors. This became very high on DOD, Office of Small Business Utilizations. And many of the prime contractors have been


working very diligently in this regard. In fact, one of our entities alone, one of our sectors reported $10 million -- well, it was almost ten and a half million dollars last year with just one entity. We kind of track these things.

Of course, we do an awful lot with service disabled small businesses. Again, this aligns very well to DOD initiatives. And I'm very proud to report that three of the four sectors of BAE received honors at the veteran -- the Small Business Coalition for veteran and small businesses last June. And my sector, I'm very pleased to share with you, has received this award consistently for the last three years.

So working with disabled or service-disabled companies is not something new. Diversity and inclusion, however, has really just taken off in defense in the last five years.

We've seen tremendous change in that area. On the HR side, because, let's face it, human capital is very important. We cannot overlook the intellect or the capabilities when it comes to meeting the needs of our customers, whether it be product or services. That's exactly what has happened. We now have five generations in the workforce. And in that period of time, span of life, and a young lady sitting up here that shared with us this morning that at one point in time she sustained an injury and she's now sight impaired. Those things happen to us. Feel it, taste it, touch it.

What we find in our leadership and our executive leadership is that someone has been touched by this in their lives; so they become a little more willing to listen or change in management. We bring in someone that's been in an organization that has had this level of exposure, or more importantly, as I was sharing at lunch today, or maybe it was breakfast, I seem to do nothing but eat at this conference, (laughter), but I'm happy to report that BAE was the first defense company to have a woman named as the CEO. Well, in five years all that's changed.

So we are moving the dial in a lot of regards, but what I'm here to accomplish today and some of the discussion that we've had most recently is that there is no statutory requirement to work with individually-owned disabled company. We are working with Ability 1. But as I said before, Ability 1 is a program and it used to be called JWAD. And statutorily agencies had to work with JWAD entities, which are large businesses. They're nonprofits, but nonetheless, they're large businesses.

So when we get in the sandbox, or as I call it the mud pile, so we get in there and we start wrestling around with all the other entities, because let me assure you, everybody has a voice in cutting up this pie. The first thing that people want to know is, well, do I have to give up market share for that group? Well, I don't think so, folks, because, quite frankly, there's


plenty of business out there if you're ready for it. But more importantly, it's not about who you are; it's what your capabilities are as a company.

So many of you are women owned. Many of you are veteran owned, service disabled. Some of you are HUBS-owned companies and some of you are minority owned. You need to understand that certification. I get that. Many of you do not understand that we have to have an evangelical type of movement in this regard. Let me guarantee you that nobody wants to support the initiative of making it a report compliance driven initiative. We have to move the dial with regard to it's the smart thing to do. I don't want to get into the right thing to do, because that's old school. This is about the smart thing to do. And why is it smart? Because you have a highly educated workforce out there that just, oh, by the way, happens to be disabled.

I'm in the services sector. And I also support the IC, otherwise known as the intelligence community. Do you think anybody cares what you look like or what your gender is or what your sexual preference is or if you're disabled? As long as you get the job done, nobody ever sees you to begin with. Truly. All we care about is that we get the bad guys; right?

So this is the perfect time. I think the time is very ripe for us to get engaged and start having that discussion. But let's not do it the wrong way. And this is what they did with the veteran movement. Statutorily, throw it down. It becomes a requirement. We didn't have enough, service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses signed up. So it was a scramble. You know what happens when there's a scramble? There's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse.

So Patricia is back there nodding her head. She's already had to hear me up on my soapbox. We need to communicate, socialize, educate, and deploy. We can do that, but you have to be ready! And that doesn't mean, oh, well, this is what I do. You need to go to it, present well, and demonstrate that you know how to execute, because an execution plan is really, really important. Your past performance and ability to perform, that's all we care about, seriously.

>> ERIC HOWARD: I agree with everything Diane said. I work for a regulatory agency, and I have a little different view on that. I do --

>> He doesn't do the reports. That's why.>> ERIC HOWARD: I do a lot of reports. Believe me. I feel

that oversight function is a very useful tool. I mean, you're right. We can all do the right thing. We can all have this environment where the best and the brightest, but we have to ensure that entities, organizations, cast a wide net. So disabled-owned businesses, LGBT, minority-owned businesses, have


an opportunity to participate in that business. If they don't know it exists, they can't get there. And so I want to make sure that there are processes in place in the entities that we regulate, that the businesses that are capable that can do this work know it exists, and that's what I really -- I'm very interested in that. And I agree with you that there's a wealth of talent out there. But if that talent doesn't know those opportunities exists, they'll never get the contract.

And so that's what -- everybody can do the right thing.>> It's not about doing the right thing, it's the smart thing.>> ERIC HOWARD: I agree with that. But I do think there's a

right thing.>> Can I just weigh in for just a second?>> ERIC HOWARD: Absolutely. >> This is problematic for me. First of all, we have a

Congress that can't seem to do anything. And this is going to take -- it is an act of Congress, by the way, to get the initiative put into place outside of what your initiative is, because that doesn't impact the greater prime contracting community.

But we have a reporting system right now that is broken. So rather than wait for all those things to be put into place, what I'm advocating is that we have a movement in place to leverage what's already being done here. I see some real collaboration. You guys are leading the charge. You really are. We all need to get on that same bus. Seriously. And we need to demonstrate that there are a lot of capable disabled small business owners out there.

Now, certification is the number one thing on your agenda; right? This is where everyone in the room nods yes. We're going to strength in numbers. If we can't count you, then how can we move the dial? I'm sending that back.

>> ERIC HOWARD: I look at things -- I'll be honest with you. I'm looking at it from a narrow perspective. I'm not speaking for the entire world. I'm speaking up for the responsibilities that my agency has. So we want to move this dial forward. And so certification is very important. But one of the things when we developed this regulation, and I'm -- I hope not speaking heresy, because I think certification is very important. We put in our regulation that self-certification was okay, because we didn't want anyone to come back and say I can't find anyone, I can't -- there's no certified businesses out there, and disabled-owned businesses. That was one of the primary considerations.

>> DIANE: Is it in SAM? Is it in SAM?>> ERIC HOWARD: I don't understand -- >> How many of you know what SAM is?


>> ROXANNE WILSON: Let's regroup. I want to tie in for the comments I'm hearing. Prior to the Housing Economic Recovery Act of 2008, as well as Dodd-Frank, that does the financial institutions such as banks, I want to make sure that you understand that like Fanny have had diversity since the early 90s. To Diane's point, we always said that it wasn't just the right thing to do, but it was a fiscally and feasible and innovative thing to do. That's what's so important.

Now, to Eric's point, in regards to actual legislation, it has allowed supplier diversity programs such as Fannie Mae to actually go to the higher-ups in our organizations and actually say that we consider to the maximum extent possible in a safe, sound, financial practices of our environment to actually consider all minorities, women, disabled owned businesses, as well as individuals in the likes in regards to the workplace to be considered in every contracting and business opportunity that we do at Fannie Mae. So it is provided a voice of enforcement. So not only do we have that ability, but then now we report to our federal regulator, Eric, what we do every year.

So what does that mean to you? I think that's the focus that we need to bring it back to. And really, what that means to you is that you get to register in our database and not just be sitting there and wondering, okay, am I ever going to get an opportunity. But the mandate actually says now I have to publicize Fannie Mae. We publicize select opportunities on our website. So if you went to FannieMae.com and went to "about us" on Fannie Mae and went to suppliers, you would see a banner that says contracting opportunities. You will be able to see on a monthly basis ongoing, updated RFP's. And I think that's what you were talking about with SAM.

>> DIANE: We don't do that by the nature of what we do. We don't do that.

>> ROXANNE WILSON: What I'm saying is the JSA -- the GSA said if you're looking for government contractors, you can actually find one there. The GSA we're outside of that realm. So the fact that we now have an enforceable legislation that says, okay, higher-ups at Fannie Mae, you need to let everyone know when you have these contracting opportunities out there, it has given a voice beyond just, oh, it's the right thing to do, but it's actually said, okay, not only do you register, but now the opportunities are publicized, so now you can say, as a DOBE, I'm interested in this opportunity. So now you can go to the website and actually say I'm interested, please look at me from a competitive nature.

Now, mind you, it is still a competitive nature. There's no set asides. There are no AD attachment programs. We are still a GSE, but it gives you the opportunity to actually be able to go


ahead and say that you're interested in working on that particular opportunity.

So I'm kind of going to go back and ask you guys a quick question. So as far as legislation -- so we have Dodd-Frank. We have HERA. In regards to those two components from Eric's perspective and then Diane's perspective with saying that you don't necessarily have a piece of legislation --

>> DIANE: There's no statutory requirement. >> ROXANNE WILSON: There's no statutory requirements. In

your organizations, what type of businesses are you looking to do business with under the legislation, whether it be your overhead or any other components? And then, Diane, given the fact that you don't have that type of legislation, we obviously know that you are in this to win it and has nothing to do with the legislation. What are you looking for?

>> ERIC HOWARD: One of the reasons that HERA was put in place or this requirement was put in place in Housing Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was there weren't a lot of minority-owned and women-owned businesses participating in the financial services industry. Traditionally what happens is GAO, government accountability offices has done a number of studies in the financial services sector. In the financial services sector will have great strides. It will be an economic downturn, and all of those strides will disappear overnight.

So that is why this section was placed in the statute. It very, very specifically identifies. It says diversity inclusion of all aspects of the business, your operations. But it also specifically identifies real estate firms, accounting firms, very, very specific entities or businesses that are related to the financial services sector. So that in and of itself, the guidance that the statute provides, is a roadmap for where these entities should be working to increase opportunities to ensure that women owned and minority businesses.

And I want to be clear, and Roxanne said it, but it's something I find myself saying a lot, the regulation statute and the regulation that we enforce, it's not affirmative action. It is an outreach regulation. The cream rises to the top. You've got to second what Diane says. You've got to be ready. You've got to be the best. You've got to be ready to take on the business.

You're not going to get the business just because you're a disabled-owned firm. But what we're doing, what we're working very hard with all the entities to do is to ensure that you know of the opportunities when they're available. And so you have the ability to bid on those contracts. So we're really in sync on that.

I want to step back a little bit and take it so we're all on


the same page. After HERA was enacted in 2008, in 2010 the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act was passed in 2010. And that has a section, Section 342. And it placed the requirements that are on the entities that we regulate, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan banks. It put it on the financial regulatory agencies. It doesn't require that the institutions -- that those agencies regulate. I believe that was the intent, but in the Congressional process it was not -- they were not able to do that.

So there are identical requirements on the FDIC, OCC, the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Reserve Protection Agency, and the FHA. So that's another dynamic. So we're not only a regulator that is requiring entities that we regulate to do these things. We also have a law that requires the agencies themselves to ensure that there are outreach, opportunities for women-owned and minority-owned businesses. And you'll notice that I left off disabled-owned, because that was not placed in Dodd-Frank. The hook or the declaration to disabled-owned businesses is through the regulatory initiative that my agency spearheaded in implementing or developing regulations for HERA.

>> DIANE: I'm going to survey the room again. How many are you in SAM? You registered through the government. It used to be their CCR and they moved it under SAM. How many of you are certified through USBLN or an affiliate?

The reason why I ask you this is this morning at breakfast there was a young lady there from -- well, nonetheless, it was a corporate participant. They wanted to know where's the big list? How do I know who these companies are? And I said, again, that's coming. We're going to push the envelope. We're going to try and socialize the information, encourage people to be certified. The reason why you need to be certified, although self-certification works, but it puts you in a database so we can find you. I mean, seriously, I go to conferences across the country all year long. This is the only one that I've attended that's focusing on disabled small businesses.

So if I missed this conference, guess what? I'd have missed it. And that's not what we want to do. So we need to encourage you to take that step and make sure that you're on a list. And for those of you that say, oh, I've done that and my phone's not ringing off the hook. Well, okay. Let me respond to that, too. You need to get in the database so that when somebody does have an opportunity, how many of you were in the session this morning -- I can't remember Willy's last name -- Davis. I met him last week. Was it last week we were together? Two weeks ago. And I gave him my card. He does a lot of work in cyber security. Very interested. And I never heard from him. Well, I


can't even begin to tell you how many times that happens. Well, Saturday morning I got an e-mail from him. He had lost

my business card, but he took the initiative to reach out to an affiliate representative and she knows me. I was able to forward his information right over to the capture team. We'll have him come over. His capabilities line up with what we do and he's got incredible past performance. Guess what? He's working for Northrop Grumman. I always let Northrop Grumman do all my heavy lifting anyway.

So it's a great opportunity for him as well as us. But what I said to Willy was, because I went over and chatted with him, thanking him for the follow-up, which is very important, but I said, you know, it may not happen tomorrow, may not happen next month, but I have to at least get you in front of people. I have to socialize your information. We have to begin somewhere. If you think it happens overnight, it doesn't.

And I'm working with some really great service-disabled, veteran-owned small business owners. In the intelligence community we're very. Their trade craft came right from the source. They rolled out. They decided to pitch a tent and start their own business and they called all their buddies that had the same trade craft training.

And we do very well with service-disabled, veteran-owned small business. So it's not that we are opposed at all with working with those individuals that have some type of disability. But these guys know their business. That's what's really important. So you need to be in a database so we can find you if we need you. And it's my understanding that one is being developed. So please pursue that.

If you're interested in doing business with the federal government, you have to be in SAMs. Again, it's a great database. And I'm sitting next to the enforcer over here. So I have the feeling that we're going to see more in this area, but I want you to be prepared for it, because the worst thing that can happen is that we give you the opportunity to step up and you fall off the cliff. We don't want that to happen, seriously. We want to move the dial. And the only way we can do that is as a collective.

>> ROXANNE WILSON: Real quick before we do that question, I just wanted to piggyback off of something that Diane said. I want you guys to understand the importance of USBLN and their development, the DOBE program. The importance is that even though Fanny, Freddy, and other commercial sectors and GSE's have the ability to self-certify, just the mere fact that there is one house in order for us to network with, to develop a relationship with, and to actually find you is huge.

There's only limited sources when it comes to supplier


diversity. Let's just be frank. It's not something that companies have hundreds of people doing.

>> DIANE: That's a dream.>> ROXANNE WILSON: But the thing is developing a relationship

with Patricia Richards in the back and knowing that every month or whenever they update the DOBEs in their Excel system, knowing that I know every single disabled-owned business; that I can then provide that to my corporate procurement staff and let them know here are the new certified DOBEs. They'll know your category of service, who you are, your financial salesman, what that system provides us with that Patricia is giving me. They get an "in" to you. You no longer become just the 600,000-plus suppliers out there. They know you because I have that relationship with Patricia, because Freddy has that relationship with Patricia.

The point is that I want you guys to see USBLN that maybe in regards to the GSE's we don't necessarily have to look at that time self-certification, but it's certainly an easier fashion of retrieving you.

>> ERIC HOWARD: I want to make sure we don't leave you with the impression that self-certificate identification is ideal. Third-party certification is the gold standard. USBLN is the gold standard in disabled-owned businesses. It's just that we wanted to ensure that we did not keep this initiative from moving forward. Frankly, some of the institutions that we regulate have developed their own procedures that say we will only do business with third-party-certified businesses. And that's perfectly fine. It's just we did not want to hinder this initiative by placing that requirement on the institutions themselves.

>> SHARAINE ROBERTS: My name is Sharaine Roberts, with Caption First. I'm kind of embarrassed, but we're on the GSA list, but you're using a word called SAMs. And I don't understand the difference or was hoping maybe you could clarify for me.

>> DIANE: Certainly. SAMs is a tool that GSA tried to develop, wink wink, but there is a tool embedded within SAMs, and it's called the Dynamic Small Business Database. Now, you need to understand that since the federal government, broadly speaking, does not have a requirement, a statutory requirement, you're not really going to have a category. But what's important is that you're still a small business. So you do have an opportunity in comments to annotate the fact that you are a disabled-small-business-owned company, which is important.

My point is that we must be able to find you. You know, when they launch, and I said this earlier, when they launched the Service-Disabled Veterans Initiative, the problem was for years there was such a stigma about being disabled that we had to go out and beat the bushes and say you really need -- I need you to


get certified, please. You're killing me, because we needed to meet the goal.

And if they weren't certified, we couldn't give them the business. We had to go to somebody that was. So a company that had been working with us for many years got kicked to the curb because they wouldn't take the time to go in and check the box. SBOSV is self-certifying.

My position on certification, I'm going give you the company voice, which says the only two areas that require certification is ADA and HUBs. Now, the other opinion on that is, you know, honestly, I don't care if you're certified or not, but I work for organizations and I chair certification committee for the Virginia Minority Supplier development counsel for years. It gives us, prime contractors, a sense of you are who you are. And there is so much waste, fraud, and abuse out of there.

Now, this morning we mentioned the HUB zone program. They went through the census track and further investigation, and they de-certified the HUB zone because of abuse. You don't want to be branded that way. When we go to executive leadership and we make presentations on your behalf, there is that sense of this is not going to come back and bite me later me later. Re-procurement cost will wreak havoc on the bottom line. We're all about the bottom line. This is where everybody nods yes.

>> MARK ELLISON: Mark Ellison with Gemini Technology. Within SAMs, what I've been able to do, and that's list that I'm DOBE certified. I don't think "self" anything benefits anybody. Commenting on the disabled veteran, we've put a lot of people in jail because they did self-certify as a disabled vet and in fact they weren't, but they got three or four years' worth of $20 million contracts. So I'm challenged with "self" anything. The only thing I could check in SAMs was disadvantaged business and makes the comment that I'm certified as DOBE.

>> DIANE: Disadvantaged business has to do with equity.>> MARK ELLISON: Agreed. I meant that. But there's no box

in order to get to your -- >> DIANE: There's not going to be a box for a while until

socialization, communication, else.>> I'm with you. But usually you have to fill that in in

order to get to the definition. This is really my question. So Fannie Mae, some of these larger contracts, I'm a packaging paper kind of entity. Typically I will follow as a Tier 2. A lot of times I don't get to see history so that I can look at, like the federal government shows who awards the contractors.

So three years from now I can look at who want it and I can share on the direct contract with the government. I need to be a Tier 2 that will do all your office supplies and I can save you thousands of dollars on paper as an example, but I have to work


with the one that gets the overall contract. But I can't get at the history. The rest of the government

side of the house has visibility on that. So I can always plan future on who the incumbent was, start building relationships. And so I'm looking for advice on your guys' organization.

>> ROXANNE WILSON: I appreciate the commentary. Once again, we're with the government, but we're not really with the government. (Laughter)

You do have to register at FannieMae.com for your products and services as an actual seller.

Our agreements are considered confidential and proprietary. That's why I can't necessarily provide you with the information of who our actual companies are that we're doing business with. But that being said, there are particular questions in our proposals when there is an RFP that, to be frank, it's going to be one just given the volume and the nature of that actual opportunity. It's going to be won by a larger business that we do ask how are you subcontracting your work? Are you going to subcontract it? Are you giving a portion of it to diverse businesses? And I think that is so important for us to be able to then tap into that and say, okay, these are the diverse suppliers that are out there in our database. Let us help you help us to let you know of them. And that's our way of giving you visibility. So if you're not registered in our site so that we can actually give that visibility when that proposal or that contract is going to be awarded, that's a deficit to you. So that's why we do come and we do this outreach.

We want to be that effective.>> Yeah, I am registered and I'm also a GSA mentor protégée,

and they try to list me as a Tier 2. I haven't been able to secure what I would say the appropriate.

>> ROXANNE WILSON: There will be three steps. Could I get a raise of hand of who is an actually DOBE in the room? First thing, are you actually registered at FannieMae.com? One, two. Okay. So excellent. Thank you. Second thing is, are you having on your Outlook on your calendar, a reminder of what contracting opportunities are coming out for FannieMae.com?

Okay. >> No.>> ROXANNE WILSON: Put down on your checklist that from now

on you're going to put a monthly calendar reminder, check the website, RFPs are popping out.

Third, at the end of this conference, come see me. I have a business card. I ask everyone, once again, the legislation is really about outreach; right? So I have a business card. You can call me, you can e-mail me directly, but I do want to have


your capabilities statement. With that capability statement electronically, please don't give it to me physically, because that means is that I'm scanning in and I'm sending it to your our corporate procurement. But what I'd like to do is then set up an additional meeting where you'll meet with our client engagement directors in your particular service category, and then you're going to develop a relationship with them. That's probably something you haven't been able to do.

>> Right.>> ROXANNE WILSON: That's what we're going to do. Once

again, that's the reason why we're here and the reason why we have you develop a relationship with USBLN so we can do that.

>> DIANE: Let me comment. I represent so many in the contracting community. Most of us leverage our procurements. We have recurring buy on, that's what we do. It saves a lot of money, saves a lot of time. But it also precludes small minority businesses, blah, blah, blah, from having access to those opportunities. It's the old bundling game; right? So what we've done, because nobody wants to take the time. I get all that. We actually developed a cheat sheet because I feel very strongly about this, and you can reach out to us. And we actually can tell you who is in charge, who the particular buyer is, what's administering the contract.

You can talk to them and we also have information on who holds the contract, and it's not sacred. And when it comes up for renewal; most of them three years. Now, three years seems to be a long time, but it goes by very quickly. To Roxanne's point, six months before it's due to expire, you need to be making phone calls. You need to get on that prime's list, because we don't govern second tier. That's indirect commodity, we don't get involved in that. But what we try and do is give you the access that you need to crack the code.

>> And that was just really good comments. I will tell you it's not all doom for me. I'm a Tier 1 supplier for all the packaging to Boeing. I'm challenged with some of the value I'm trying to offer, but yeah, on the prime side, you're spot on with what you said.

>> ROXANNE WILSON: It's also about knowing your audience. For example, if the volume is not there for a particular company to need a lot of second tier under a larger business, it's not going to be fruitful for you to tap into that company. I'm not saying that's for Fannie Mae or anything to that effect. If I were to give advice to any DOBEs, is to learn your audience. We'll have an opportunity to speak. We'll have match making. We'll have exhibitions. This is wonderful opportunities that USBLN has provided you. Take the time to learn who the corporates are in the room. Go to their website. Learn about


what they are offering. Where Fannie Mae, the more conglomerate, not the chocolatier out of Chicago. I cannot tell you how many times I've gone to exhibitions and someone will say, "Where is the candy?" Huge dialogue once in Chicago about cinnamon. Why?

>> You should bring candy with you anyway just because. Just saying.

>> I really didn't, but I'll take the mic since it's here. One of the things to consider to piggyback on your comment over here, is that I work for Freddie Mac. Not unlike most corporations, I think, they operate on 80/20 rule: 20 percent of the companies will do 80 percent of the businesses in the corporation. And you have to realize where those sweet spots are, where the same rule impacts Freddie Mac as well. And so we've taken a look at the top companies and we're trying to make them, not try to make them, we are engaged with them to provide subcontracting opportunities just like Fannie Mae is doing.

So the key is knowing who those companies are, whether there are really opportunities for you. We find in the finance industry where there's real opportunity, and I hate to say this, is they're hard to find certain companies because we're looking for underwriters, looking for loan people to provide loan evaluation, looking for financial modeling. We can handle all the other stuff, but that's not in the 80% of the dollars that we work in. So you have to understand where your niche is to make an impact on the business.

>> See, you had something to say.>> RAJ WILLIAMS: I have a question mainly for Diane. I met

Diane in the past. She's a wonderful -- I heard Diane in the past. My name is Raj Williams, and my company is design and consulting services. I've met Diane in the past. She's a very good speaker. I heard her quite a few times.

>> DIANE: She gets a check, too.>> RAJ WILLIAMS: She's very dynamic. I sent my information

in the past. Things have changed since that time. Is it still okay to revisit and come back and provide you --

>> DIANE: Any time you have a change in your company. Think about this: I took my wrist brace off but my doctor put me in a wrist brace because I shake so many hands. Last week was particularly difficult. I did three different events. And some of these guys -- we were laughing about this earlier -- some of these guys try and, you know, they're shaking so firmly that they're taking you down to your knees. But honestly, I meet so many people, and I love meeting people.

I think it's the greatest thing to really interact with people. You're so interesting. You have such wonderful stories, great capabilities, but guess what? I can't remember all that stuff. So you have to remind people of what's going on. More


importantly, to Jay's point, you need to understand what it is we buy. We don't buy certain things. I mean, truly. And the things that we can -- we identify as being small-business friendly, you better be very good at what you do, because it affects me in life.

I talked a little bit earlier about the bad guys. Well, in ship repair, I can't afford to have those ships go out and be deployed and sink; right? Communication devices must work very well. The same thing with tanks, etc. Everything we do is at a very high, exacting level in terms of certifications in one area or another. But if something is changed in your company, you've received an award, or you have decided to go in a different area, you need to let people know what you're doing, because we cannot remember everything.

And I love it when people come up and go, yeah, I met you two years ago. Did you get my stuff? Are you serious? What I encourage people to do is to touch base. Do not become a pest. That's the worst thing that can happen. That stalking, forget about it. You can be branded. How I know you, obviously, Raj, I know you now, but it helps to remind people where you met --

>> RAJ WILLIAMS: In a good way, I hope. >> DIANE: Yes. Why is it interesting to me? What do you do

that's going help me? Because otherwise we're just having a great little chat in e-mail and I love this, where you tell me I'm gonna come into town. I'll be there -- I can give you two hours on Wednesday. Really? Really? Because I'm probably busier than most. Then I get attitude when I suggest that you meet with one of my staff members.

Guys, the idea is to get in front of people, but you have to have something of interest to offer. So you have to, number one, know what I buy. Number two, are you ready? Are you at that level? Number three, don't stalk, but do pursue. Let people know you're interested. And coming to these type of conferences, once you see somebody, I don't care what anybody says about tele-presence, phone calls and e-mails, once you see someone and have that conversation, we're all humans, we relate a whole lot better that way. I've been doing this for a long time. And it really does make a difference. I may not remember your name, but I will remember your face. And I may not remember yesterday, but I can remember two months ago.

So remind us of what you're doing.>> Clearly you remember the stalkers.>> CHRISTIN BRYANT: My name is Christin Bryant. I'm in

procurement. I'm laughing at everything you're saying because does so true. This isn't just applicable to government. Because this is why I'm here. I'm always looking for diverse women minority business. We are in desperate need. As Diane said, you


need to go and you need to register so that we can find you. That is the only way we know.

>> What do you do?>> I'm with Humana. We have a whole team of procurement.

I've got my certain categories. We'll be doing the one-on-ones in the meet and greets. If you have a product that we buy, we are interested in talking to you.

>> You need to check DOBE.>> I'm not a hundred percent familiar with -- >> No, I am with you. (Laughter) >> They do recognize DOBEs and they have a checkmark. Now, I

don't work with them, but I've done all the right things to position myself. They have everything available for DOBE. So make sure you meet with her.

>> I was looking to make sure you are a speaker.>> Well, I am by default. We have about 15 minutes left until

the end of the session. Other questions from the audience before we go back?

>> ROXANNE WILSON: Fannie Mae is going to be moving from its current registration portal to an alternative new portal at the end of the year. So while I ask you to register now, because you never know if there's going to be an opportunity; right? I am going to ask you to reregister at the end of the year. Also, because of our relationship as founding partners with USBLN, we do have a referral code in our system. So when you register as a new potential supplier, you're going to go ahead and click that you found us at USBLN. It really helps us, once again, in our reporting. It helps to know that, okay, these outreach efforts doing something. If you think about it, what a great success story as well as USBLN to know that I spoke to you in office supply. What's your name again?

>> MARK ELLISON: Mark Ellison with Gemini. >> ROXANNE WILSON: Let's say he went ahead and updated his

registration. He put in that he was in USBLN. He looked at our contracting opportunities. Let's just say our contract's coming up for office supply, maybe he's a second tier under our current office supplier and we developed an actual success story and it was because of the networking that we had and the outreach efforts that we had with USBLN. So it's really important to do that.

Don't feel that just because you're sitting in our database for months, possibly even years, that we don't care about you. Refresh your capabilities. Send me updated capability statements. I will be giving out business cards. I do not mind you contacting me. That is why I am here.

I want to know what you guys are doing. If you're in IT


service, let me know what your niche is. To Jay's point, IT services could maybe be this huge market for everyone. But a small market are those that do the creation of loan valuation models. And if you do that, that is a spearhead for you as a disabled-owned business to possibly get an in where maybe you couldn't.

>> RAJ WILLIAMS: First of all, I want to thank Patricia for reminding me to introduce myself. Thank you, Patricia. She is always looking out for all of us DOBEs, thank you. I wanted to mention when Diane mentioned the second largest defense contractor in the world, one of the things that my small company has done recently has joined the FBI's group, outreach group called InfraGard. It's more as a goodwill to provide our intel.

We have learned a lot from the FBI as to all the cyber-hacking and cyber-security issues and all the things that are we are doing at a macro level. So just in thinking about a company like mine can be more boots on the ground in places, perhaps even the BAE cannot be, because of, for example, being invited to an event that the FBI headquarters in DC BOI. My son was more interested in whether I took the tour. But I didn't take the time to take the tour because I just had so much to do. He said, "Mommy, are you crazy? They're not letting people go into that building anymore and you didn't take the tour."

And I said, "I'll do it next year." I haven't even connected that with you guys being the largest defense contractor. So I'll put that down.

>> DIANE: Let me just share with the audience that some initiatives are coming out. And if you want to play in the federal game, you need to understand that some of the things that are flowing down will affect you. Some of these issues are relative to some of the things that we're talking about today in terms of your accountability. For those of you that deal with any type of acquisition of parts, there's an initiative for it.

We have counterfeit parts. We have a huge problem in DOD. We also have a huge problem with cyber. So if you are a prime contractor or even a subcontractor in those areas, you have to certify that everything you do is compliant. That puts a huge burden on small business.

So, again, back to my point of sometimes we come up with these brilliant ideas that we think are going to be great, but we don't think about the food chain. We don't consider what this impact is going to have further down.

And I do have a question with regard to the DNI, because I want to make sure that I understand the HR side of the house. In minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, HUBS-owned, you're required to have 51 percent ownership, day-to-day control and operation. Do you have any requirements for employing disabled?


Is it just the individual themselves as a DOBE? Because I've run into this before with women-owned small businesses. The women owns the business and everybody on her staff is male, or the veteran-owned small business that we've got one vet and that's it, and the same thing with minority-owned businesses. So I just wanted to ask the community. I'm going get these questions later on. So I'm trying to learn here, too.

>> The requirement is 51, but I would say in general with the DOBEs I've met, we have a serious commitment to hiring disabilities. Now, saying that, that's not a requirement.

>> DIANE: That's very true in the service disabled and in the minority community as well. I see a lot of that.

>> RAJ WILLIAMS: I wanted to add to that. There is a bias that I'm seeing in the folks, I'm not staying it's you, but folks that look at folks and make a visual judgment about them, whether they are really truly a disabled person.

>> DIANE: This is why certification is so important. >> RAJ WILLIAMS: There are two tiers. Similar to when my

company was awarded the General Services Administration schedule, that is a very -- it took my company two and a half years. Normally six months. The point there was somebody in the audience that said the past performance that may not have been good past performance. I'm like, "What are you talking about?" That kind of got me a little bit defensive to say, look, you cannot be judge and jury. There's a third party that's -- what is it -- the Dunn and Bradstreet. They do the past performance administration and then they pass it to the General Services Administration, who look at the servicing provided by Dunn and Bradstreet, who is a third party and they judge that information. For somebody else to micro examine that is crazy.

>> DIANE: That's a different issue. That's not relative to DOBE.

>> RAJ WILLIAMS: I wanted to say how people can second guess things.

>> Human nature.>> ROXANNE WILSON: I wanted Eric to expand on something for a

quick second. Before, as you heard Eric talk about and myself talk about self-certification, the interpretation that Fannie Mae has had in regards to the housing and economic recovery act of 2008 is because it's defined as 50 percent or more as far as ownership and controlling issue in a company with regards to minority and disabled-owned businesses. Can you hear me now? I wanted to make sure. That is why we have decided to self-certify. So Eric, could you just expand a little bit of the difference between 50% and 51 and if that is why FHFA --

>> More than 50%. >> ROXANNE WILSON: I'm sorry. 50% or more.


>> More than 50%. That's the way.>> ERIC HOWARD: I'll make sure I understand the question. So

you're asking why is there a difference?>> ROXANNE WILSON: Why are we doing self-certification? I

wanted to make sure -- >> ERIC HOWARD: How are we allowing you to do

self-certification? At this time this was put in place, there weren't that many third-party certifications for disabled-owned businesses. And so that was really the driving factor. We knew there a lot of other third-party certifying boards or entities for minority-owned or women-owned businesses, but there weren't for disabled-owned businesses. That's why we actually allowed self-certification.

In the preamble, everyone forgets there is a regulation, a whole preamble that explains the rationale for why the regulation was written the way it was. And in the preamble we explained that third-party certification is what we want you to do.

But we would allow self-certification, because we did not want to hinder the entity's ability to advance doing business with disabled-owned businesses. So that's really it in a nutshell.

>> DIANE: For those of you that are in other categories and you've ever gone through any kind of certification, I would say that because I was very involved with WPEO, it's an STC. The process, if you submit your paperwork, and it's in accordance with the requirements, meaning all the paperwork is in line, it's a pretty easy process. You know, if you are who you're supposed to be, it goes through very quickly.

SBA, on the other hand, for those of you that remember the days of small disadvantaged business and now we're hearing that outcry from the VA to get verified. I mean, anytime we get the government involved, they just don't have the staff. It doesn't make sense. The third-party certification organizations really dedicate the resources. They have teams and committees. They go out and do the site visits, etc.

It's a much more streamlined, and I encourage you to do that before it blows up and they get so busy. It will blow up. I feel very strongly about that. You become the evangelist for this movement and you'll get the type of attention that you merit. But you don't want this to be, you know, a requirement where you have the small business administration involved. You want to use third-party certification. And I like the idea of self-certifying. I really do. It just -- the gold standard, of course, is to be certified, but that's something that sometimes you get to.

>> ERIC HOWARD: Could I add one thing to that? Self-certification is not just in and of itself. I mean, so if Roxanne were -- if I were to go to Roxanne and say, "I'm a


disabled-owned business and I self-certified myself," Roxanne does have a responsibility to try and make sure. She has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure. I mean, the level there is different. But, you know, it's not like you'll take everyone's word for this. There is some responsibility that goes along with that.

>> DIANE: What are the penalties?>> RHEA NORWOOD: I know we have to wrap up -- >> DIANE: I'm not talking about law. What I'm talking about

if you are found to be fraudulent, how much follow up business can you expect? So we're talking to a very astute audience. I can tell that. But the bottom line is, is that once you are identified as fraudulent and word travels fast --

>> ROXANNE WILSON: So we're wrapping up real quick. I wanted to kind of touch on a couple of points real quick. The first thing is did everyone get a brochure in the room that wanted one? From a Fannie Mae aspect, we have had a commitment to supplier diversity since the early 90s. Since 2008 under HERA, we are now mandated to consider it in all contracting and business opportunities. We do ask you to register. We will ask you to reregister at the end of the year.

We want you to set a monthly reminder to look at our publicized opportunities on FannieMae.com under "about us" under suppliers in the contracting opportunities paragraph. Right now you'll just see -- I think there's three RFP's in regards to brokers and agents in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But those are considerations. To Eric and Diane's point, even though we allow you to self-certify, obviously, USBLN, given the fact that they are third party certifying body, it's always better to be certified. So you do have that opportunity to input that you are a disabled-owned business.

I thank you. I'd like Eric and Diane to have their summary as well.

>> ERIC HOWARD: I wanted to say thank you. To let you know real quick, you can also register at Freddie Mac. You can register at all 12 of the Federal Home Loan banks. You can register at the Federal Housing Finance Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, NCUA, the Federal Reserve. They're all very interested in hearing from you, and they all have opportunities in their information gathering apparatus for you to tell your certifications and your capabilities. I'm just encouraging you to do that.

>> DIANE: And I've worked with Roxanne and with Jay from Freddie Mac for many years. I can attest to their commitment. And they do a terrific job. But more importantly, be ready. Do your research. Be ready. And go out and advocate for DOBEs.

Thank you.


(Applause) >> Thank you, Roxanne, Eric, and Diane for your time and your

knowledge and for everybody. No one fell asleep, which is always a really good thing, especially because it was after lunch.

Okay. Thanks very much, everybody. And enjoy the rest of your afternoon.

(Applause)

********This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.********


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