Governor Gregoire Announces Director of Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises

For Immediate Release: June 5, 2007

OMWBE helps women and minority-owned small businesses in Washington expand and thrive

OLYMPIA � Governor Chris Gregoire today announced the appointment of Cynthia Cooper of Columbus, Ohio as director of the Washington Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (OMWBE). The appointment is effective July 1, 2007.

�Cynthia Cooper�s expertise in working with a diverse group of product suppliers and her commitment to supporting traditionally under-served communities make her an excellent match to lead the important work of the OMWBE,� said Governor Gregoire. �For Washington to be a global competitor means that not only the Starbucks, the Amazons and the Microsofts are successful, but our small, minority and women-owned businesses are competitive and successful as well.�

Cynthia Cooper was most recently the diversity and ethics manager at Wendy�s International, Inc. where she provided supplier diversity leadership, including outreach to the diverse business community and implementing fair and inclusive supply chain practices. She identified and mentored diverse suppliers with the potential to do business with the company and designed, developed and implemented diversity training to over 20 major suppliers to Wendy�s International.

Throughout her career she has been recognized for her work with diverse groups and, most recently, was honored as the 2006 Advocate of the Year by the Women�s Business Enterprise Council-Southeast and has received the Outstanding Managerial Performance Award from the State of Connecticut. She was the chair of the certification committee for the Ohio affiliate of the Women�s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and is currently a member of the board. She volunteers for BOLD, a community initiative supporting at-risk youth.

Cynthia Cooper has been a consultant and diversity trainer at the Sable Group in Connecticut, where she provided workforce diversity training for Lockheed Martin. She was the executive director at the New England Minority Purchasing Council in Boston, where she was hired to lead the regional affiliate of the National Minority Supplier Development Council. She was the director of contract compliance at the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the owner and managing director of her own consulting business, specializing in supplier diversity. She was also the executive director of the Connecticut Minority Business Development Center for Kendall Square Associates.

Cynthia Cooper received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Connecticut. She currently resides in Columbus, Ohio and will relocate to Washington.

The Washington Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises creates and sustains a competitive and fair business environment for contracting and procurement opportunities that includes small businesses owned by minorities, women and socially and economically disadvantaged Washingtonians.

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