Celebrating Juneteenth: A Time to Reflect, Embrace & Evolve

Yolanda Friend creates an inclusive environment where everyone can authentically thrive, achieve their goals and contribute to the success of Accenture. An advocate for change, Yolanda strongly believes that Accenture’s rich diversity makes the company stronger and more innovative. She is focused on increasing representation across all segments of diversity, and deeply committed to building awareness around why inclusion is a critical success factor for organizational performance. Yolanda leads the North America Inclusion & Diversity team to develop, retain and advance people across all dimensions of diversity and align investments to strategic priorities. She partners with Accenture business leaders to maintain accountability for progress towards diversity goals so our workforce reflects the communities where we live and work. Diversity is an outcome of inclusion, so to that end, Yolanda drives initiatives that facilitate an inclusive, bias-free experience across the talent lifecycle by leveraging analytics to maintain parity in outcomes. Prior to this role, Yolanda spent over 10 years helping clients navigate transformational change and learn new ways of working. These deep change management and stakeholder engagement skills provided a strong underpinning for her current position as a Managing Director leading North America Inclusion and Diversity. Outside of work she is a Mom of a blended family of 4 kids (4, 6, 12 and 13) - every minute she’s not working she is with them either as Uber driver or in their fan-club. Yolanda makes the time to be active physically, in fact she met her husband in a gym, it helps her maintain her physical health and it supports her emotional, mental and social health too.

Nedra Dickson, Managing Director, leads Accenture’s Global Supplier Inclusion and Sustainability Programs across 20 countries. With strong expertise in Procurement transformation and Supplier Relationship Management, she has managed over $2B in contingent labor spend. Within her current roles, Nedra oversees Accenture’s procurement and client opportunities with diverse-owned businesses globally. To create an inclusive procurement community, Nedra is credited for expanding Accenture’s award-winning and world-renown dedicated diverse supplier mentoring program - Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP) in 7 countries. This program represents customized curriculum set around helping to grow and develop diverse businesses, to support their successful integration into Accenture’s global supply chain. Nedra holds several Board of Director positions within the Supplier Diversity Community. Nedra was recognized by Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the Top Diversity and Inclusion Officers of Atlanta, #14 out of 100 Top women in Procurement, Global Supplier Diversity Champion by NGLCC, Georgia Top 25 Women in their Female Success Factor Series, WE magazine as one of America’s Top 100 Leaders in Corporate Supplier Diversity, Top 25 Women in Power Impacting Diversity, WBENC Corporate Mentor of the Yea, USAPCC- SE region Mentor of the Year, Top 30 Champions in Diversity, and graduate of Leadership Atlanta – class of 2022. Nedra grew up in Arkansas and holds an MBA from University of Southern California, a BS degree from Florida State University and BA degree from California State University @ Northridge. Nedra enjoys traveling as she has been to over 65 countries. She also enjoys reading and playing golf in her spare time.

Chloe is the Atlanta Office Managing Director at Accenture - a leading global professional services company providing a broad range of services and solutions that deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. She has over 29 years consulting and industry experience, including 24 years with Accenture. As the Office Managing Director, she leads Accenture’s vision and operations across Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Additionally, Chloe works with clients to identify and target superior business value and to achieve and sustain that business value while increasing customer satisfaction and business agility. She leads programs focused on transformation and rapid earnings expansion leveraging digital and has worked with her clients through all phases of transformation from strategy through implementation. Chloe is known as an inspirational leader with a passion for achieving tangible results with clients, employees and community partners. Chloe is the executive sponsor for several women’s and diversity programs within Accenture and is an active member of the Atlanta community. She is currently a member of Leadership Atlanta, Leadership Georgia, Atlanta Rotary Club, National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Network of Executive Women (NEW) and on the Board of The International Women’s Forum (IWF), The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, The United Way and The Atlanta History Center. Nationally, Chloe is a member of The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Board, the Howard University Supply Chain Advisory Board and C200. Chloe is passionate about working with others to dream big, collaborating to innovate and making a sustainable positive impact for her colleagues, her clients and the broader community. Chloe is a leader in the ED&I space and is intentional about leveraging her platform to create greater equity for women and people of color. Chloe has an MBA from Wharton and an Electrical Engineering degree from Cornell University. Her interests include reading, Bible study, international travel, exercise, skiing, dancing salsa, learning French and enjoying good times with good people. Chloe lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and three children.

Monica L. Spruill joined Accenture in 2014 and is a Senior Marketing Director and member of Accenture Leadership. She currently holds dual roles as Marketing Managing Director for the US-South and Global Head of Diversity, Development & Learning for Marketing + Communications (M+C). As a US-South business leader, Monica is responsible for developing multi-channel marketing campaigns that influence sales, client relationships, market presence and positioning across 15 metro areas. These strategies work to amplify the brand, engage the 18,000 Accenture people in the South, build client relationships and generate sales origination opportunities aligned with the firm’s growth priorities and strategy. Within M+C, Monica oversees diversity, people development, and learning initiatives. She uses multi-pronged approaches to retain, promote, and invest in diverse professionals; crafts new rotational programs to instill versatility in M+C members; and has transformed learning to ensure that over 2,000 marketing professionals excel in priority areas. Monica earned a BS in marketing from Hampton University, an MBA from the Lubin Graduate School of Business at Pace University, and a HBX Certificate of Strategy from Harvard University. She was awarded the Gold Quill Award for Excellence in International Marketing Strategy by IABC. Monica is an experienced public speaker, moderator, and panelist and presents subject matter expertise in women’s business leadership, marketing campaigns and strategy, and myriad aspects of diversity and inclusion. She resides in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.