Joining Ascend Twin Cities: Billy Mzenga

Billy Mzenga

Meda's newest Supplier Diversity Coordinator

by Martha Flores Perez

Twin Cities' Meda is growing, adding Billy Mzenga to its team. He brings in a wealth of experience from academia and recently as a small business owner. Having grown up in Minnesota, Billy is well-aware of the needs of his local community. He received a bachelor's from Augsburg University, and did corporate work for four years before going to graduate school at the University of Illinois- Chicago, focusing on sociology. While in graduate school, Billy and his wife, Megan, opened their family business, Nut Meg's, and had their first baby. Upon receiving his master's in sociology, the entire family moved back to Minnesota. Now at Meda, Billy finds himself at the high tide of recruiting Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) for their upcoming cohort and anchor organizations to their council. 

Billy joins a field of work that, according to the National Minority Development Council, drives $401 billion in economic activity in the country led by MBEs. It is people with an optimistic attitude that this field requires. It takes pulling many relationship levers to continue creating suitable matches between MBEs and the right opportunities. In mixing sociology with his lived experiences, Billy bridges research-based knowledge with the practical needs of a local business owner. He says, "I think about things in the big picture. Supplier diversity is not going to solve all society's racial problems. However, if I can play a role in helping minority-owned businesses ascend to the next level of prominence and build wealth among minorities, if I can make that small impact, then I think it is just really exciting!"  

From the perspective of corporations, who often provide contract opportunities, "[f]inding minority-owned vendors that comply with a buyer's procurement requirements is another potential obstacle" (Bateman et al., 2020). Billy acknowledges that it takes creativity to meet everyone's needs- new ways of thinking about business structures and relationships. Billy Mzenga brings this mentality not just to Minnesota but also to the National Ascend table.