BDPA Corporate Epsilon Award Winners: Top 11 Companies for Blacks In Technology

BDPA will recognize several of America’s corporate giants and accomplished individuals at this year’s 35th Annual BDPA Technology Conference and Career Fair, August 14-17, 2013, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington DC. BDPA created the Epsilon Award to recognize and celebrate key contributions and accomplishments of its members and supporters.

National BDPA Corporate Epsilon Awards recognizing corporate achievement are awarded to corporations who have demonstrated a commitment to people and an understanding that fostering a culture of diversity has a bottom line business case value. Each year, National BDPA surveys Fortune 1000 companies to make an assessment of their internal workplace and career development climate using the following rating categories:

• Tenure, Promotions and Terminations
• Leadership Development and Advancement programs
• Supplier Diversity programs
• Community Outreach programs

This year, National BDPA is pleased and honored to recognize eleven (11) corporations with the Corporate Epsilon Award. These corporations are finalists for 'The Top Company For Blacks in Technology' award that will be announced on Saturday, August 17th during the Awards Gala:

1. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
2. Health Care Service Corporation
3. HP
4. Intel
5. Johnson & Johnson (2012 Winner!)
6. Merck
7. Monsanto
8. State Farm Insurance
9. Wal-Mart
10. WellPoint
11. Wells Fargo

BDPA is recognized nationally as a global member-focused technology organization with over 45 active chapters in the United States. BDPA continues to stand as a leader in delivering 21st century technological programs, college scholarships, mentoring, support and services for youth and adult information technology professionals. Contact Wayne Hicks, Director, BDPA Corporate Sales Department by phone (301.584-3135) or email (corpsales@bdpa.org) if you need more information on BDPA sponsorship program.

Grant Disbursement: BDPA Triangle Chapter ($650)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) exists to providing funding support for BDPA programs, scholarships and services in our 46 local chapters around the nation. As such, BETF is pleased to announce approval of a $650 grant disbursement to BDPA Triangle chapter. The funds will support a truly uplifting event held earlier this year.

Carl Hill Congratulates Ensign Stevenson

BDPA Triangle chapter president Carl Hill and chapter VP-Finance Bobby Lamaute made their request as follows:

"BDPA Triangle chapter provided a venue and event to announce the graduation and announcement of a HSCC participant from South Carolina. Ensign Raven Stephenson graduated from Duke University with a full scholarship of $180k that was awarded in 2009 by the US Navy. Sever chapter presidents participated in this momentous occasion that was well-publicized. In attendance were chapter presidents from Greater Columbia, Triangle and Washington DC as well as national president Monique Berry."

It is always a pleasure when BETF is able to celebrate the success of the young people in our Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship program. BDPA volunteers work day-by-day to advance the careers of BDPA members in the IT industry from the 'classroom to the boardroom'. You can do your part. You can make a secure online donation that will help some of our students in North Carolina afford a college education. What say u?

Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Membership, Jun 2013)

The lifeblood of any nonprofit association is its membership. Success with organizations like BDPA can be distilled into three words: MEMBERSHIP. MEMBERSHIP. MEMBERSHIP.

If you accept that truth then it is worth the time to honor those local BDPA chapters who are demonstrating success in their efforts to recruit and retain members. Let's take a look at the ten largest chapters in BDPA-Nation:

1. Chicago - president, Pamela Sexton
2. Philadelphia - president, Eileen Gadsden
3. Atlanta - president, Felicia Jones
4. Washington DC - president, Perry Carter
5. Los Angeles - president, John Malonson
6. Dallas - president, Stacy Stewart
7. Cincinnati - president, Clarence Larcarte
8. New Jersey - president, Goldie Bonney
9. New York - president, Renetta English
10. Middle Nashville - president, Kendall Norris

These are the same ten chapters who led the nation last month. BDPA Washington DC (up 1 spot) and BDPA Los Angeles (up 3 spots) made a move towards the top. BDPA New Jersey (down 4 spots) lost 20 members last month, however, those numbers are likely to improve as the energy from their 10th annual Families in Technology Day take hold.

The top two chapters - Chicago and Philadelphia - are members of the 'BDPA Century Club', which means that they have over 100 members. One of the common denominators for each of these chapters is that they place a high premium on the delivery of quality programs and services to their members. These chapters work hard to ensure that there is a strong return on the $100 investment that each member makes thru annual dues.

Historical perspective - Top 10 BDPA Chapters (Jun 2010)

What are your thoughts about the value of BDPA membership? What can your local chapter do to improve the value-proposition for you on a personal or professional level?

Golden Technology Services Supports STEM Training for Young People in North Carolina

Carl Hill

Please join BDPA in welcoming Golden Technology Services on board as our newest BDPA corporate sponsor. This small business is owned by BDPA Triangle chapter president Carl Hill. The company provides funding for the meals that nourish the bodies of the young people taking part in the Saturday computer camps hosted by BDPA in the Raleigh/Durham (NC) area.

Golden Technology Services proves itself equal with corporate giants like HP and Johnson & Johnson by making this investment in BDPA programs, scholarships and services.   Our hope is that other BDPA entrepreneurs and business owners will follow the example being set by Carl and his company.

President Profile: Carmen Giles (BDPA Milwaukee)

BDPA Milwaukee was founded in 2006. It is a chapter that has struggled to get traction for most of its existence. However, all of that may be changing in 2013 under the leadership of its current president -- Carmen Giles.

Carmen Giles, President
BDPA Milwaukee Chapter

Address:6631 W. Glenbrook Road
Milwaukee, WI 43223
(414) 460-2542

Carmen Giles is the 'corporate champion' for BDPA with MillerCoors. During sponsorship discussions Carmen realized that BDPA Milwaukee chapter was dormant. Carmen believes that technology should be accessible to a broad number of people in our community. She recognized that BDPA could be a vehicle to advance provide greater opportunities in the information technology industry for the greater Milwaukee area. As such, she agreed to take the lead in reviving the local chapter.

Carmen volunteered to be the chapter president until the chapter can conduct proper elections and install a full body of officers. Carmen’s leadership will be instrumental in taking the BDPA through a business transformation that will elevate and sustain the local chapter in Milwaukee. A major challenge facing BDPA Milwaukee chapter will be in attracting and retaining members. That challenge is being met head-on by the business and community leaders recruited by Carmen to grow the chapter.

Carmen’s vision and mission for the BDPA Milwaukee Chapter is simple:

• Transform to an efficient and effective chapter
• Bring awareness of the National BDPA organization
• Build membership and sponsor relationships
• Partner with community school systems ensuring students explore BDPA and its offerings.

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Carmen's Favorite Quote: "Nothing great is every accomplished alone." ~ Nina Crawford (1906-1975)

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Carmen has over 20 year of managing diverse engagements, program management, and technical initiatives for enterprise level Information Technology. She has qualifications which include: portfolio and environment management, teaching and training of ERP software applications, business analysis and design, and software programming. She has held leadership positions such as Release, Integration, Application, and Information, and Program Manager.

Currently, Carmen is the SAP Center of Excellence (COE) Manager for America’s Best Beer Company, MillerCoors. In this role, she is responsible for overall SAP functional and technical design, environment management, and integration within the SAP COE along with identifying and developing process and solution improvement opportunities, and most importantly, attracting, developing, and retaining the best diverse employee talent. Carmen also oversees the tutoring program at MillerCoors.

Carmen graduated with honors and earned a Master of Business Administration in Global Management and she earned her Bachelor in Science in Mathematics. She has numerous certifications in SAP, DB2, Sarbanes-Oxley, leadership development, and project management. Carmen is a certified Project Manager and has experience in managing various projects across multiple platforms using a number of tools and methodologies.

Carmen is an active member of many organizations, including: National BDPA, National Black MBA Association, Project Management Institute (PMI), PMI Milwaukee Chapter, Dallas Texas Chamber of Commerce, SAP America User Group, American Management Association, National Association for Professional Women and MillerCoors Employee Affinity groups.

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Please use the POST COMMENT link below to share some BDPA-Love with the president our BDPA Milwaukee chapter!

Epsilon Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution: J. Darrel Thomas (HP)

National BDPA annually selects and awards the BDPA Epsilon Award to recognize and celebrate key contributions and accomplishments of its members. Nominations are accepted across five categories and they are evaluated by a team of National BDPA members in accordance with the descriptions below.

One of the categories is Outstanding Technical Contribution. This honor is reserved for individuals who have pioneered new or leveraged existing technology to solve a critical business or technical problem.

BDPA is pleased to announce that J. Daniel Thomas has won the 2013 Epsilon Award for Career Contribution. Darrel Thomas is an HP Fellow and member of the Enterprise Services (ES) Chief Technology Office, focusing on Strategic Pursuits and Cloud Computing Services Enablement. Thomas’ primary focus is the dual responsibility of collaborating with Enterprise Services portfolio, sales, solutioning, and account teams on applying service offerings to both sales/solutioning engagements, and in-flight client accounts. His additional responsibility is in the implementation of Cloud Computing services in ES for clients, focusing on HP’s cloud service offerings and the associated technology aspects – including Public, Private, Managed, and other cloud models. Key areas of concern are Cloud APIs (including OpenStack), automation, cloud service management, and cloud-to-traditional federation/orchestration.

Darrel Thomas is worthy of the Outstanding Technical Contribution award because he leveraged existing technology to solve critical business and technical problems for several HP clients. He is one for the few minority employees to achieve the level in Hewlett Packard. With over 300,000 employees globally, HP only has 54 HP Fellows. They are considered pioneers in their fields. HP Fellows and Senior Fellows set the standards for technical excellence and drive the direction of technology in their respective disciplines. They are not only exceptional technologists; they are futurists whose contributions shape both HP and our industry as a whole.

Individuals who seek to become Fellows are nominated by their management team and must be approved by business-unit and corporate review boards.  Also, Fellows must meet a rigorous set of criteria in the following three areas:

1. Continuity and impact of technical contributions
2. Breadth and depth of knowledge
3. Leadership

As a HP Fellow Thomas’ primary focus is the dual responsibility of collaborating with Enterprise Services portfolio, sales, solutioning, and account teams on applying service offerings to both sales/solutioning engagements, and in-flight client accounts. His additional responsibility is in the implementation of Cloud Computing services in ES for clients, focusing on HP’s cloud service offerings and the associated technology aspects – including Public, Private, Managed, and other cloud models.

Since beginning his career at Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Thomas has held several roles with various responsibilities both before and after the company was purchased by HP. His more recent job experiences within the company have included chief technologist, consultant systems engineer and chief architect.

Previously, Thomas worked as a chief technologist for Persona based out of Colorado. In this position, he was responsible for the Internet, intranet and extranet architecture of the PersonaVault™, Persona’s ASP Identity Management Service. He also negotiated the E-Business ITO contract with EDS.

Thomas currently has several patents both awarded and pending and holds relationships within and outside of company organizations and professional affiliations. He also holds four Guinness World Records for the FIFA World Cup France 1998 website. Darrel Thomas completed his computer science degree at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Epsilon Award nomination for J. Darrel Thomas was submitted by Jambey Clinkscales, chair of the HP Black Employee Leadership Council.

Overview: BDPA College Scholarships

The BDPA strategy is to bring college students into the professional chapters on the local level as opposed to creating ‘college chapters’. Part of that strategy includes an aggressive delivery of college scholarships to deserving BDPA high school students.

There are a number of college scholarship programs in place:

1. Bank of America Scholarship for BDPA Students - These scholarships are administered by BETF.  There have been six Bank of America scholars over the years.
2. Dr. Jesse Bemley Scholarship – These scholarships are administered by BETF. They are awarded to high-performing students in the annual BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) championships. Bemley scholars can be found in scores of colleges around the nation.
3. Eli Lilly Scholarships for BDPA Students – These scholarships are administered by BETF. They are awarded to students around the nation who show a desire to make a difference in the IT industry over the course of their college and professional careers. Eli Lilly & Company began funding these scholarships in 2008.
4. Johnson & Johnson Scholarships for BDPA Students - These scholarships are administered by BDPA. They are provided to winners of the annual BDPA IT Showcase as well as all-around excellent HSCC students.
5. Monsanto Scholarships for BDPA Students - This scholarship initiated in 2013 and given to four students (2 nationally and 2 from St. Louis) with an interest in information technology, who make significant contributions to society. Applicants must excel academically, show exceptional leadership potential, and make an impact on their communities through service to others.
6. Oracle Scholarships for BDPA Students – These scholarships are administered by BDPA. They are awarded to deserving students selected by local chapters. Over $150,000 has been awarded to Oracle scholars over the past three years.

We are grateful to Creating IT Futures Foundation for its support of the Bemley Scholarships. The funding for that college scholarship comes primarily from BDPA members and supporters. You can make a secure online donation in a number of ways that include:

• Crowdrise
• Facebook Causes
• Your Debit or Credit Card

Finally, we would love to talk with other corporations or nonprofit organizations about creating STEM-related college scholarships that can be administered by the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation. Just reach out to us via email, scholarships@betf.org.