Addressing Diversity Head-On
Vernon G. Baker, II
As Senior Vice President and General Counsel of ArvinMeritor Inc., a $7-billion global supplier of a broad range of integrated systems and components for the automotive industry, Vernon G. Baker, II has had his share of challenges.
In 1999, Baker became the general counsel of Meritor Automotive, Inc. Three months after being onboard, Baker’s CEO asked him to manage the legal matters of the multibillion- dollar merger of Meritor and Arvin Industries, Inc. The merger was a success, and Baker has continued to demonstrate his leadership and expert legal skills.
ArvinMeritor believes in diversity. The company demonstrated its commitment when it hired Baker, an African-American, to head up its legal department of 12 attorneys. In his position, Baker has overall legal responsibility for all of ArvinMeritor’s global operations and its subsidiaries, and directs all legal activities in the company.
Baker is also a strong advocate of diversity. He encourages his staff to utilize minority-owned law firms or people-of-color in majority-owned firms. When Baker was hired, many firms sought to gain the company’s legal business. In response, he communicated that a commitment to diversity would be a key consideration in obtaining the law department’s business.
Today, ArvinMeritor’s legal department asks its outside counsel to report their billable hours by the ethnicity and gender of the team assigned to their work. The department also benchmarks the demographic changes within each firm on an annual basis. “As an African-American general counsel of a Fortune 500 company,” shares Baker, “I have an obligation to be an advocate for minority lawyers.”
In 2000, when ArvinMeritor decided to develop operations in the Renaissance Zone, an economically depressed area in downtown Detroit designated for industrial development, Baker and his legal team were eager to take on the task. The company constructed an automotive sunroof facility for the light-vehicle systems business, bringing jobs and a new industry to the community. Only six months after the factory opened, 340 urban Detroit residents—90 percent of whom were minorities and either unemployed or welfare-dependent—had been trained and were working in the factory.
Additionally, recognizing the need to set up a pipeline of talent, ArvinMeritor constructed a pathway between the plant and the adjacent Southwestern High School, offering on-site training to students interested in the automotive industry and jobs to individuals in the inner city.
Baker says his greatest reward is providing hope and a livelihood to people-of-color while creating sustainable business for the company. “We are formalizing an attitude and a culture of commitment to a community that is already at ArvinMeritor by putting this commitment into programs,” said Baker.
Another successful diversity program is the Supplier Diversity Exchange, which consists of an online register of minority suppliers and vendors that is maintained by ArvinMeritor’s procurement department and their suppliers.
The Exchange allows ArvinMeritor to track their majority-owned suppliers’ spending with minority- and women-owned businesses. ArvinMeritor’s company goal is to spend in excess of six percent of their total procurement budget with minority businesses.
Additionally, ArvinMeritor works directly with minority suppliers to build better business practices. It provides business advice, academic seminars, and formal training programs. “Aside from it being the ‘right thing to do,’ we gain access to a population that has proven to be very responsive,” explains Baker.
From the June 2002 issue of Diversity & The Bar®