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Speaker Bios

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Cecil Plummer, President and CEO of WRMSDC

Cecil Plummer is the president of the Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council. 

Plummer formerly worked with Robert Half for 17 years and left his position as the Director of CSS Strategic Solutions to join the Council. He has over 15 years of executive leadership experience and possesses a solid background in strategic sourcing, change management, performance and process improvement, Supplier Diversity, strategic planning, and risk management. Plummer also holds a Project Management Certification (PMP) and has a strong track record of success in small business entrepreneurship, communications strategy, process reengineering, contract negotiation, and relationship management. He serves on the following advisory committees:

  • Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco - Community Advisory Committee
  • State of California - Independent Office of Audits and Investigations, Equity Task Force
  • State of California - Department of Insurance, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force
  • University of California System - Small Business Advisory Committee
  • Pacific Community Ventures (CDFI) - Board of Directors
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Sal Peinado, Jr., Member, Insurance Diversity Task Force at CSAA

Sal joined CSAA IG in January, 2013. He is responsible for developing and implementing CSAA Insurance Group’s supplier diversity and supplier risk management programs. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Insurance’s Diversity Task Force and WRMSDC Treasurer and board member.

 

Prior to CSAA, Sal was Manager of Purchasing at California Water Service Company where he was responsible for Procurement, Fleet, Facilities and Supplier Diversity. He has a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley and a M.A. in Economics from San Jose State University. Sal also taught courses in Microeconomics and Investments at San Jose State University.



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Kathleen Wong, Program Manager, Supplier Corporate Responsibility at Adobe 

Kathleen believes that corporations have the ability to solve some of the world’s biggest problems like climate change and income disparities at scale - if only they can mobilize the right internal advocates with a grasp of how to influence people, integrate existing processes, and leverage technology to drive solutions. As the program lead for Adobe’s Supplier Responsibility initiative, she helps the company to create a positive impact beyond the software sector by fostering stronger data center sustainability and supplier diversity and inclusion practices. Kathleen has been personally recognized for these efforts receiving Adobe's Founders Award (2019) and Procurement Excellence Awards (2019, 2020).
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Scott A. Vowels, PhD

Scott A. Vowels currently manages the Supplier Diversity Business Unit for Apple where the team has elevated the company’s utilization of diverse suppliers year over year to achieve more than $1B in verifiable spend in 2016, earning Apple a seat on the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable. Scott is also widely known within the Diversity & Inclusion network for his trail blazing work around the Economic Impact of small business and supplier diversity.  


 He first made a name for himself by successfully leading both the Northern California and Alabama Minority Supplier Development Councils to national prominence as President & CEO. While leading the Alabama Council, he simultaneously operated a federal Minority Business Opportunity Center for the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency. Early in his career, Scott managed procurement and sourcing processes for manufacturing environments within General Motors and has over 30 combined years of procurement and supplier diversity experience. 


In high demand as a speaker and panelist on issues involving women, minority, LGBTQ and small businesses, he is the co-founder and moderator of The Bigger Discussion video series on the Future of Supplier Diversity which collectively, has amassed over 70,000 You Tube views, making it the most watched supplier diversity series on record.   Scott is a two-time Amazon best selling author with his first book Don’t Be Afraid to Call the Baby Ugly, published in 2014 and his most recent Hacking Supplier Diversity, which currently sits atop Amazon in both the Supplier Diversity and Minority Business categories.


Scott has appeared numerous times among the 100 Most Influential in Supplier Diversity by both MBN USA and WE USA Magazines. In addition to his published works, he has authored several articles and white papers under The Institute for Thought Diversity, a diversity and inclusion Think Tank he established and leads with industry associates.  He holds master's degrees in Business Administration and Economics, and a PhD in Business Administration.  Before entering the corporate workforce, Vowels was on an entirely different career path and traveled extensively as a world-ranked professional tennis player.  He still counts travel among his greatest passions, but when he's not on the road, Scott calls Oakland, California, home.


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Jeanette Milano, Director, Procurement at SurveyMonkey

Jeanette leads the Procurement department at SurveyMonkey. Most recently, she is helping to lead a coalition of 23 companies, mainly in Silicon Valley, which aim to provide opportunity to people who are underrepresented and marginalized using their collective resources to do business with suppliers that have similar goals.


Jeanette is passionate about the Procurement discipline. She loves the opportunity it provides to work across business functions - helping people solve their toughest challenges. Over the past 13 years, Jeanette has had the honor of leading Procurement teams through both financial downturns and hyper growth, pre and post IPO, negotiating business critical contracts, and developing numerous Procurement programs.Jeanette has served on the APICS board of directors, has a B.S. in Supply Chain Management and is CSCP certified.


In her free time she enjoys volunteering at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco - and making killer pizzas from scratch for her family (ask her for some tips!).