Monica Armstrong Billinger is the Director, Global Supplier Diversity & Sustainability at Abbott. Her keys to developing a successful supplier diversity process are leadership commitment, procurement language in contracts, and reporting systems for diversity spend and economic impact. Monica employs best practices, including identifying Regional Procurement Champions to advance women enterprises; partnering with company leaders to enhance growth opportunities for diverse suppliers; and collaborating on new initiatives to engage diverse suppliers, including the Abbott-LISC Initiative.
The Abbott-LISC Initiative is a $37.5 million program to support diverse health businesses with growth capital, loans, and coaching to help business leaders grow their companies and create jobs. Monica believes the initiative will build a more resilient and inclusive healthcare supply chain that supports greater diversity in the healthcare industry and drives broader economic opportunity.