Diversity: Melody Birmingham

PUF examines our industry's drive to diversify its workforce and spend. This section focuses on the progress at Duke Energy described by its SVP Melody Birmingham.
 

PUF: What's going on in thesupply chain system for Duke Energy in regard to supplier diversity?

Melody Birmingham: The supplier diversity area is not only important to me in my role as Chief Procurement Officer, but also to our company as well. At Duke Energy, supplier diversity is more than a program. It's a pillar of our strategy to help meet the ever-changing needs of our customers and communities.

It's an integral part of our supply chain operations. What I'm proud of is since 2015, Duke Energy has spent more than a billion dollars annually with diverse businesses. In 2020, we spent a total of $1.3 billion on both direct and indirect diverse suppliers, and $4.2 billion with local suppliers.

We continue to raise the bar and are committed to increasing our direct annual spend with our Tier 1 diverse suppliers to $1 billion. These are the suppliers that Duke Energy does business with directly.

This emphasizes our support to grow diverse suppliers and the equity of contracts awarded for larger scope and budgeted projects.

PUF: Why is it so good for Duke Energy?

Melody Birmingham: It's beyond good, it's important to our success. Supplier diversity allows us to invite diverse suppliers to bid on projects to help improve the safety, resilience, and the modernization of our expansive grid and facilities.

Our annual spend, at least over the past couple of years, has been between $12.5 to $13 billion with third-party suppliers. We want to identify more opportunities for diverse suppliers to grow and compete.

We're deliberate in how we reach out to these suppliers. We've been engaged in a number of outreach and education forums, and partner with our business units to ensure we are building a diverse supplier network that represents the diverse communities we serve.

Our diverse suppliers that are able to participate and benefit from these projects hire their own employees to better serve our customers in more creative and innovative ways, which helps the community, and the states where we operate. It's mutually beneficial, not just for us and the suppliers, but also helps entities outside of Duke Energy.

PUF: Talk about helping these companies get to that next level where they're strong and growing in your communities.

Melody Birmingham: Many of our diverse and local suppliers are relatively small compared to our prime suppliers, or what we call our alliance suppliers.

Our Supplier Diversity and Engagement team provides information forums to help these smaller and diverse suppliers. We know some diverse businesses lack the capacity to bid as prime suppliers, which means large contracts are often awarded to non-diverse suppliers. We're committed to building bridges to provide equitable opportunities for smaller, more diverse businesses to compete.

We also work to create advocates for these small and diverse suppliers. We are fortunate in that we have strong working relationships with our alliance and regional suppliers, which is necessary to ensure they are aware and pursue opportunities to subcontract with diverse suppliers. 

PUF: Talk about maximizing the use of diverse suppliers for all levels of contracts.

Melody Birmingham: We encourage small and local diverse suppliers to participate at all levels, and in all categories of spend within our company. For example, when we have major construction projects, storms, and outages, or when we need food services to support our line workers and teams.

We work with local and diverse suppliers for an array of opportunities. From smaller projects at our facilities that we manage and operate to larger contracts, like nuclear, renewables, and transmission projects to invest in and improve the resiliency of our grid.

Duke Energy is modernizing and transforming our fleet to generate cleaner energy, which will increase opportunities for diverse suppliers supporting major construction, engineering, industrial or environmental services. As we optimize our real estate portfolio, we've partnered with a local and diverse supplier to help build one of our large corporate headquarter offices in Charlotte.

PUF: You all are working hard to advance diversity — both within the company and in your communities.

Melody Birmingham: Yes, Duke is working to help advance diversity.DE&I is important to us, not only with our supplier base, but also within our company.

We have a commitment to build a diverse workforce that mirrors the communities we serve. It's an intentional effort that doesn't just apply to this moment, but it's a sustainable part of our culture and the next generation of our workforce.

We want to ensure we're creating a workforce that reflects our communities. It's one thing to have a diverse workforce. It's another to ensure all teammates feel included and there are equitable opportunities afforded to them.

We ended the year with a workforce representation of 23.4 percent females and 18.4 percent minority. That's despite a pandemic environment that caused a hiring pause, which impacted so many companies.

We have an aspirational goal to increase the percentage to 25 percent for females and 20 percent for minorities. 

Achieving these goals will require a commitment to hiring diverse talent, as well as developing and promoting talent within the company. To increase the percentage of underrepresented employee groups, specifically females and minorities in our company, we've made that a priority.

We made progress in 2020, which led to Forbes naming Duke Energy as one of "The Best Employers for Diversity" and one of America's "Best Employers for Women." I'm pleased to say that. 

We have teams dedicated to recruiting diverse talent as external hiring opportunities come up. We attend career events at historically black colleges and universities, professional societies, and community events.

We participated in thirty outreach events in 2020 with North Carolina universities, community colleges, and other trade and technical schools to help raise awareness of career opportunities in energy, construction, and other contractor fields. 

PUF: Do you hear, we'd love to have more people of color or women, but they're not out there?

Melody Birmingham: Yes. The talent is there. You have to be intentional if we want to recruit, hire and retain diverse talent. There is diverse talent to be found if you are serious about wanting to find diverse talent.

Being intentional in hiring diverse talent does not lower expectations. In fact, a diverse team raises the bar. You'll exceed your expectations when you include diverse teammates — they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, have the right attitude, and can seamlessly transition into your culture with support.

It raises your bar as a company because you're bringing in people with different perspectives and a different lens. If you have a homogenous work group that only sees from a single perspective, you're missing the big picture, so bringing in diverse talent into your workforce can result in greater success as a company.

PUF: Do you try to have an impact on your communities and the other big businesses or chambers of commerce?

Melody Birmingham: Absolutely. Being a big utility isn't what we tout, it's lending our time, talent, and means in the communities we serve. Although we are large in size, we are connected to our communities at the grassroots level. We provide opportunities for our employees to volunteer in their local communities and have organizations within our company that partner with local and state agencies to support community efforts.

We can't do well if our communities aren't doing well. There's a symbiotic relationship. We want our communities and our states to compete and thrive.

That is important to us as a company. That isn't a requirement. It's a duty, a responsibility that we have. Our employees appreciate the opportunity to volunteer. They appreciate the work our Foundation does to support organizations and needs within our communities. They appreciate our serving on boards.

We not only give money, but we give time.

PUF: How does it feel to be named one of Diversity Women Media's Elite One Hundred Black Women Leaders?

Melody Birmingham: It's an honor to be recognized alongside the other incredible women in the Elite One Hundred and I'm inspired by them. It's a group effort when it comes to increasing opportunities for women and particularly women of color. These women are changing the game in Corporate America. 

Let me touch on my journey. I started my career in college: I went to school full-time, and I worked many jobs to help pay my way through college.

My junior and senior years, I was office manager for a temporary placement agency. My post-college career began in 1994 and over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with many types of people.

Whether it was North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, Chicago, or Indiana, I've had the benefit of working with great people and in multiple industries, specifically automotive
and energy.

Most of my career has been in operations. I've been in the field. I've found that most, if not all people, just want to be treated fairly and contribute to the success of the company and community, despite our differences.

That is the common thread. They want to know that you, as their leader, will keep them safe and hold them accountable for helping their company achieve its objectives and mission. When you hold them accountable, you're helping develop and build their skills at the same time.

I want to help inspire and support others to meet their fullest potential. That's important to me. That's what I focused on as I traveled this journey and I appreciate that it brought me to where I am today.

I'm grateful to be in a position to help shape Duke Energy's supply chain operations through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. And I'm extremely proud of the continued success of our supplier diversity program — and to lead a team and partner with vendors who are equally committed to advancing this critical work.

Diversity in Utilities Workforce and Spend articles:

• Hugh Price, former National Urban League president, and Ran Yan, executive director of the Lewis Latimer House Museum
• Exelon Utilities CEO Calvin Butler
• Duquesne Light COO Kevin Walker
• ITC Holdings CEO Linda Apsey
• Duke Energy SVP Melody Birmingham
• Byron Witherspoon of Ameren
• Andy Jarvis and Ron Evans of Burns & McDonnell