BIZ Online NGLCC

Hospitality giant Marriott International, Inc., is the latest Fortune 500 company to partner with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to include NGLCC-certified, LGBT-owned vendors in its supplier diversity program. The company owns more than 2,900 properties around the world, and had sales of $12.1 billion in 2006.

"Marriott understands the importance of including LGBT businesses among their diverse suppliers," says NGLCC co-founder and president Justin Nelson. "They were looking at how they could expand their spending on diversity, and it makes sense to expand it with diverse constituencies."

"One of the objectives we have is to mirror the communities where we do business," says Marriott's senior director of diversity initiatives Mike Tobolski. "We're always looking for suppliers that add value to the company."

Supplier Diversity's Roots

Marriott launched its supplier diversity initiative in 2000, and since then has exceeded even its own expectations for the program's success. In 2005 the company set a goal of spending $1 billion with diverse suppliers by 2010, but "we're expecting to exceed that goal" by the end of 2007, Tobolski says.

The consequence of Marriott's partnership with NGLCC is that the hotel chain has found itself in good company, joining a growing list of major hospitality firms with LGBT supplier diversity programs.

"Marriott is doing what a lot of other firms in the industry are doing," said Nelson. "They saw that other major hotel groups were working with us on supplier diversity, so it was a natural progression."

Marriott's move was noticed beyond the hospitality field, too.

"Part of this," says Tobolski, "is taking care of our customers, the IBMs of the world," a corporation that also partners with NGLCC on supplier diversity. "The fact that we're involved with the same organizations they are is good for our relationship as well."