I’ve been thinking a lot about Lillie Knox lately. These thoughts are spurred by the upcoming awarding of the Lillie Knox Investing For Growth Award and the recent week I spent at the WBENC conference in San Francisco. My work with WBENC always has me thinking about Lillie because that’s where Lillie was working when she passed away in 2003.
For those of you who were not fortunate enough to know Lillie personally, she had such a strong commitment and expertise in helping W/MBEs have the opportunity to compete in business. She exercised that commitment and expertise in many different ways and forums, from corporate America, to WBCS board leadership, and finally to overseeing the national WBENC certification program in its formative years.
Even though you may not have known Lillie, you are benefiting from her work. She played a major role in crafting the premier WBENC certification program that is best-in-class throughout the country and is being replicated internationally. She also developed best practices in supplier diversity in corporate America that still generate results for all of us today.
So, we at the WBCS are proud to honor her legacy through the Lillie Knox Investing For Growth Award. It was envisioned as a cash award because Lillie would have wanted us to invest directly in the growth of successful WBE companies. I encourage all eligible WBE members to apply for this award (deadline for receipt of applications is July 31, 2009), and join us on September 14th at Harvesting Partnerships where we will announce the winner!
If you would like to apply for the award, review the Award Criteria on the WBCS Web site.
This program is fully funded by donations so please help the WBCS by making a donation today.
