Through her empowering leadership as the Senior Manager, Supplier Diversity at Ingersoll Rand, Jackie LaJoie developed a process to identify and prequalify a "ready now" pipeline of suppliers that are available for procurement opportunities when they arise in the company. Supported by the vice president of global procurement, Jackie collaborated with procurement teams and developed a robust supplier evaluation process that ensures inclusion of pre-vetted suppliers that meet predetermined requirements. Jackie manages the process by using lean methods of reporting and accountability. Her leadership strengths are honesty, creativity and the ability to empower others.
Jackie led Ingersoll Rand's partnering with the TriState Minority Supplier Development Council (TSMSDC) and the NMSDC to create a group mentoring program, funded by an Ingersoll Rand Foundation grant. The TSMSDC Center of Excellence (COE) develops business relationships among nine member corporations and 19 selected certified minority businesses through individual and group mentoring, training, benchmarking, procurement, and modeling of the NMSDC's best practices. Under Jackie's leadership, Ingersoll Rand improved its best practices scores by more than 20 percent and has implemented several of the best practices shared by COE corporate members.