Cozy Bailey James A. Bell Gina Billings Gwendolyn Elizabeth Boyd
Shirley W. Bridges
VP CFO/Executive Vice President Exec. Asst. to Chief of Staff
CEO, Delta Technology
Electronic Data Systems President, Finance BDPA JHU Applied Physics Laboratory
CIO, Delta Air Lines
(EDS) The Boeing Company
with some 5,000 employees, generating service delivery throughout the United Avenue every day, watching all those
$12 billion in revenues. States and Canada for Hewlett Packard, people sitting around at 7 am, with no
ensuring reliability and customer satisfac- place to go and nothing to do. And I’d say
“The telecom industry is a fascinating tion for an array of products. to myself that someday I’m going to get
and fast changing field,” he said. “Sprint out of this place.”
was just a local phone company 25 years But she is also president of the Black
ago, and now it is a $40 billion, Fortune Data Processing Associates, a 31-year-old Sometimes, young Clayton would stay on
50 company in the wireless business. We organization representing thousands of the bus past her stop, and head down near
have built out a wireless network through- blacks in computer technology served the port area. “I used to go to Newark
out North America that is growing more by 55 chapters across the country. The Airport when they were just starting to
than 50 percent year after year. That is a organization is the primary institution build the international airport,” she said,
perfect example of the speed of change in seeking to improve minority access to the “and watch the airplanes take off, and say
our industry.” computer field, and increase the num- I am going to ride an airplane some day.
bers of minorities in middle and upper
Alves has been active in efforts to recruit management throughout the technology “Little did I realize that one day I would
more minority engineers to Sprint’s ranks industry. spend 80 percent of my life riding air-
as part of a management advisory board. planes that my company builds.”
“We try to make sure we can be viewed as Billings earned an Associates of Electrical
a company that is exhibiting best practices Engineering degree from the University Norma Clayton has come a long way
in developing an inclusive culture,” he of Cincinnati, and a Bachelor’s degree in from Newark. She is now vice president,
said. liberal arts from Xavier University. global sourcing initiative, for the $52
billion Boeing Company. It is a cross-cut-
“There are actually fewer African Ameri- Norma B. Clayton ting position in which she is tasked with
cans in the telecom industry relative to VP Global Sourcing Initiative improving performance and production
our numbers in the general population, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems of the supply chain throughout all of
and in a variety of the other industry sec- In the early 1970s, when central Newark Boeing’s enterprises in 67 countries.
tors. And I think that needs to change.” was a mass of abandoned buildings and
rubble from the 1965 riots, a young Clayton has one of four new management
Gina Billings Norma B. Clayton took frequent bus posts created by CEO James McNerney,
President rides across town. whose responsibilities span the breadth
BDPA of the 100-year-old aircraft company’s
As if one full time job weren’t enough; “I commuted to school for a year in Or- operations, and affect the performance of
Gina Billings has two. ange,” she recalled, “and would ride that its 157,000 employees.
The electrical engineer manages vendor Number 24 bus up and down Central
Thomas K. (Tony) Brown Ursula M. Burns Curvie Burton Frank M. Clark Phillip L. Clay, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President President, Senior Director Chairman & CEO Chancellor and Professor
Ford Motor Company Business Group Opera- Client Operations ComEd of City Planning
tions, Xerox Corporation EDS MIT
30 USBE & Information Technology I January/February 2007
http:www.blackengineer.com
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