AT&T takes leadership position in supporting Veteran Business Owners

DALLAS, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T has named the National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC) to their very short list of "Recognized Certification Agencies" for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business Enterprises (DVBE). The posting at http://www.attsuppliers.com/sd/downloads/sd_cert_agencies.pdf  signals that AT&T is continuing their industry leading commitment to supporting America's Veteran Business Owners.  Specifically, the company's diversity goal of 1.5 percent spend with Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises (DVBE) is a goal the NVBDC is looking forward to helping AT&T meet and exceed with certified Veteran Businesses.

"We were very impressed with the level of due diligence that AT&T committed to investigating our certification program.  We supplied them with our entire certification procedure and had several conference calls with their key supplier diversity people to confirm our process.  We included our project manager to answer all of their procedural questions on the operation of our National Certification Management System (NCMS) at www.nvbdc.org.  Obviously, we are pleased that we passed.  I want to personally thank the hard work and dedication of the AT&T Supplier Diversity team whose support was critical to us and our Veteran Business Owners, we owe them a huge debt of gratitude," said Keith King President of the NVBDC.

"We want to thank and congratulate AT&T for being the first telecommunications company to step up and recognize our certification program.  They join their fellow leaders from the automotive, packaged goods and utilities industries; (General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Kellogg's and Consumers Energy respectively).  We are working with other industries and hope to announce their acceptance of our certification," said Brigadier General (ret) Dick Miller, Vice President of the NVBDC.

"As a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business supplier to AT&T, OpTech Enterprise Solutions (OES) is extremely pleased that AT&T has recognized our NVBDC Veteran business certification. OES is proud to be one of the NVBDC's original certified Veteran businesses and we would like to acknowledge AT&T's longstanding leadership in working with fellow Veteran Business Owners. AT&T has continually set the standard for the engagement of diversity enterprises. I highly encourage other major corporations across America to join AT&T and make a commitment to hire Veteran owned businesses certified by the NVBDC. This is the right thing for America and for our Veterans," said Lieutenant General (Retired) Ricardo S. Sanchez, CEO of OES.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151012/276254LOGO 

SOURCE National Veteran Business Development Council