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Letter to the editor

Diversity, Hispanics gaining ground

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published October 28, 2007

It isn't every day a senior corporate leader, much less an aging white guy, bears his feelings online about both his business and personal embrace of diversity.

Well, meet Steve Raymund of Clearwater's Tech Data Corp. He can be viewed online talking about corporate diversity in traditional tones as the "right thing to do" in the business world these days. He says it's good to be diverse because it means more ideas coming from different backgrounds. He says it's good for shareholders and customers and employees.

A lot of execs say such things. But here's what they don't say - and Raymund does . He tells how he married a Dominican and how it would disturb him if his wife, and in turn his children, were denied a job because of their skin color or religion or orientation.

"It's unfair and I do not want to be a part of a society like that," says Raymund. Look and listen for yourself at: www.techdata.com/content/td_ethics/associates.aspx

Raymund ran Tech Data as chief executive for many years and recently handed that role to his replacement, Bob Dutkowsky. Tech Data is a well-run computer parts distributor, one that also happens to be the Tampa Bay area's biggest publicly traded corporation with revenues topping $20-billion a year.

As you will see in this issue, Tech Data stands out locally as a company committed to diversity on many fronts. For example, Tech Data is the only Florida-based corporation among the 200 companies nationwide to win top marks for gay-friendly policies, according to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. (See story, page 9.)

That's just a start.

This issue of Spectrum focuses on the rising influence of Hispanics among Tampa Bay area businesses. Listen to clearly bullish banker Zoraida Semprit, who relocated here from New York City not long after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It took some time to get her corporate and cultural bearings but now she chairs the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Barriers in the business world are falling fast, says Semprit, a Citibank vice president. (See story, pages 10-11.)

One big business message out there is this: If your minority business is not registered as a "minority business enterprise" or MBE, then you're losing out on opportunities and money. Eileen Rodriguez of USF's Small Business Development Center explains how to a diverse class of small business people. (See story, page 6.)

If the name Pilar Bernd is not a household name just yet, be the first on your block to make it so. She runs the Dunedin-based aerospace firm called the Bernd Group, the largest Hispanic business (by revenues) in the area. The complete list of area Hispanic firms in the Hispanic Business magazine's HB500 rankings is on page 7.

Happy reading and gracias.

[Last modified October 25, 2007, 14:18:13]