Certification/Recertification Application

Our 2021 COE Program is sponsored by Aramark and facilitated through two regional councils: EMSDC and SCMSDC. The Centers of Excellence program facilitates the development and growth of certified diverse businesses to compete and become more prepared to meet the more rigorous vendor requirements currently in use by the council member corporations.

Benefits

  • Helping minority businesses better compete in a global environment
  • Aligning more closely the sales methods of MBEs with the procurement processes of corporate members
  • Developing a portfolio of capacity building models/templates for use
  • Strengthening corporate supplier diversity processes
  • Enhancing corporation minority supplier development process by using NMSDC Best Practices
  • Providing opportunities for corporations to benchmark successful minority supplier development strategies among corporate peers
  • Providing increased business opportunities for both corporate members and MBEs through learning from each other’s competitive strengths
  • Having a greater impact on improving the economic environment of the community by reinforcing the concept of buying among and between corporations and MBE companies, improving competitive market position by helping corporations satisfy the expectation of an increasingly diverse customer base

Structure

Meetings for this program take place virtually and use video conferencing to connect EMSDC and SCMSDC’s Cohorts with Aramark ERGs, SMEs, and University Professors throughout the 6-month program. Upon Cohort completion, the Cohort will participate in a graduation ceremony and receive a certificate award.

The cohort consists of Aramark Employee Resource Group (ERG) representatives serving as Executive Coaches and SMEs, along with Class III, IV, and Corporate Plus members* who are MBEs serving as Mentors, and MBEs in the food & beverage, hospitality, and facilities industries who serve as the Mentees.

*Corporate Plus® is an unprecedented membership program for NMSDC-certified minority businesses of the highest caliber. The Corporate Plus® members have demonstrated their capacity to execute national contracts for major corporations. NMSDC national corporate members nominate MBEs for this designation, which elevates their profile among national corporate members and facilitates the MBEs broader participation throughout the NMSDC network.