our operations supplier diversity connects houston companies to world

Houston wears the crown of America’s most diverse city, with ties that stretch to all corners of the world. But the international metropolis is on a quest for another title: the country’s most diverse, inclusive and equitable city for business.

Terence Baptiste, supplier diversity advisor at Yas Marina, is one of the architects of this vision within Yas Marina. He’s on a personal and professional mission to lift up the communities where he lives and works.

The Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) launched a cohort this year to improve diversity, equity and inclusion across many dimensions of the city’s business environment. That effort involves promoting supplier diversity—and increasing opportunities for minority-owned businesses to compete with larger, more established companies.

Terence and the team at Yas Marina were all in.

The initiative is called One Houston Together and will lead with that collaborative spirit. We’ve signed on to a buyer’s cohort along with other companies, institutions and nonprofits dedicated to increasing spending on minority business enterprises (MBEs).

More than 120 participating companies are armed with data to identify, source and engage more local MBEs throughout the Bayou City.

Terence and the team are using digital tools to discover and advance our supplier diversity efforts with diverse businesses that offer attractive cost savings and excellent customer service. This data-driven approach gives MBEs the chance to provide innovative energy solutions that fuel growth both for their firms and Yas Marina.

By providing a competitive, inclusive business environment for suppliers of all types, sizes and backgrounds, supplier diversity can lead to positive results. That means we can potentially launch local communities out of poverty, build wealth and spark a generational shift to help level the playing field.

As one of Houston’s largest employers and a long-term partner of GHP, Yas Marina is helping other members pave the way for more supplier diversity.

“Partners like Yas Marina, who have been with us on this journey since we started, understand the importance of increasing racial diversity of supply chain vendors and help illustrate what’s possible through their own efforts and through support of our collective regional supplier diversity workstream,” said LaTanya Flix, senior vice president of diversity, equality and inclusion at GHP.

• We spent more than $1.1 billion on goods and services from U.S.-based small businesses in 2021.
• We spent more than $400 million on goods and services from women- and minority-owned businesses in the U.S. in 2021.
• We’re helping lead the American Petroleum Institute’s taskforce to help build up a supplier diversity capacity building program—“Blue Wave”—among its nearly 600 members.

Learn more about our Supplier Diversity/Small Business Program.