Kristin Malek
Director of Business Diversity at CDW
“Offering Exceptional Technology Solutions”
Kristin Malek, Director of Business Diversity, CDW, believes barriers exist for women in the workplace in general. However, she has been fortunate enough to work for two global companies where women in leadership roles were the norm. At CDW, 50% of their executive leadership is female, and 71% of the senior executive leadership team is female. “When we freely bring our authentic selves and unique perspectives to work, we all become better collaborators, bolder innovators, and stronger drivers of business results,” she says. “When I am in the market visiting procurements around the country, I am often the only woman at the table as it relates to IT. There is a real time need to accelerate young women encouraging them the join STEM activities, sign up for TECH and Coding classes so that they can be represented in the future of the technology industry.”
CDW's mission is to provide exceptional technology solutions that help customers thrive in a changing world. “Yet we know we have a vital role to play in building a more equal society too. Now more than ever, we want to use our scale and reach to drive inclusive growth and create economic opportunities for all,” she adds. “This means not just saying the right thing about diversity, but actually taking action.
CDW is committed to supplier diversity for its customers, making it easier and more cost-effective to meet their diverse procurement goals, access the latest cutting-edge technologies, and boost their resilience in an unpredictable world. “More importantly, our supplier diversity program enables our partners to invest in their own growth and spend more with other companies in their supply chain,” explains Kristin. “This, in turn, creates a powerful multiplier effect, generating jobs, increasing wages and boosting expenditure in local economies. As businesses, communities and our nation continue to recover from the disruption of 2020, our support for small and women-owned firms will therefore be more important than ever.”
Three people have influenced Kristin, first her mother, Janet, instilled early on in both Kristin and her sister to be civic-minded, have high standards for themselves, be givers, volunteers, and mission-led. Second is her daughter Katelynn. While she wears her Down Syndrome diagnosis on her face for all to not presume competence, she approaches life in such a positive and confident way! Third, her 10-year-old daughter, Kendall, “I believe that the siblings within the disability community are the world’s game changers, the next leaders, and the ones who make an unspoken promise to protect against marginalization and Kendall does this all with grace.” Armed with the support of these brilliant people, Kristin has embraced her role at CDW and taken the company to new heights.
One of CDW’s biggest accomplishments is being inducted into the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) in 2019, which is a global procurement organization compromised of 28 global companies that spend a minimum of $1B directly with minority women-owned companies. Only 28 global companies have achieved BDR status and CDW is one of them. Being active members of the BDR, gives our customers trust that we have a diverse, equitable supply chain,” says Kristin. “As businesses and communities seek to recover from the disruption of COVID-19 and address pressing issues around inequality, we are committed to driving inclusive growth and creating economic opportunities for all.” IEWL
Company
Management
Kristin Malek
Director of Business Diversity at CDW
Description
CDW Corporation (Nasdaq: CDW) is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs over 10,000 coworkers. For the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2021, CDW generated Net sales of approximately $19 billion.