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Some of the biggest names in finance and real estate were cheered by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this week in its annual “Pacesetter” awards, that call out firms working to diversify their supplier spending to include minority-owned companies.
The entire class of companies the chamber designated as “pacesetters” for this year’s awards collectively spent $339 million with Massachusetts-based minority businesses in 2023, a 5.2 percent increase over 2022. They also collectively spent $5.5 billion with minority-owned suppliers across the country, a 9.7 percent increase.
“When we founded the Pacesetters initiative in 2018, the Chamber Foundation led Greater Boston’s business community in the first large-scale activation of the buyers in supplier diversity. Every year, we see the Pacesetters buyers commit and act to advance equitable procurement practices that create more partnerships with businesses of color and greater success. As demonstrated by the strong Pacesetters data, our CEOs, procurement officers, and broader teams are leading the future of commerce that is inclusive and empowering,” Jim Rooney, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, won the chamber’s “company of the year” Pacesetter Award, while University of Massachusetts Chief Procurement Officer David Cho was named “champion of the year” and State Street took home both local and national “partnership of the year” awards for teaming up with System Custom Consulting and Orange Lab Media, respectively.
This year’s 35-strong class of Greater Boston Chamber “pacesetters” included several leading names in the region’s real estate and construction sectors:
- Berkshire Bank
- The Boston Planning & Development Agency
- Citizens
- Consigli Construction
- Eastern Bank
- The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Gilbane Building Co.
- Greylock Federal Credit Union
- Nitsch Engineering
- Nutter
