Beverly Norman-Cooper
Former Executive Director of National Supplier Diversity at Kaiser Permanente
Beverly Norman-Cooper is the former Executive Director of National Supplier Diversity at Kaiser Permanente, where she oversaw increased spend with certified women- and minority-owned companies from approximately $1.3 billion when she took the role in 2015 to more than $2.3 billion when she retired from the health care company in 2018.
In 2014, Kaiser Permanente became the first health care provider in the nation to sit at the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable, a small group of industry-leading companies that spend $1 billion with diverse suppliers annually.
Norman-Cooper’s tenure at Kaiser Permanente spanned more than 18 years in various consulting and staff roles. She has led successful projects as Communications and Change Management Director for Kaiser Permanente’s Chief Financial Officer and as Executive Consultant to the Senior Vice President for Finance Operations.
In 2017, the supplier diversity program she led landed the organization on the list of 101 Most Admired Corporations in America by MBNUSA; earned the California Department of Insurance “Supplier Diversity Champion” Award; the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) – Corporation of the Year – Corporate Development Award; Top Supplier Diversity Program by Professional Women’s Magazine; the Western Region Minority Supplier Development Council (WRMSDC) – Supplier Diversity Leader of the Year Award; WRMSDC – Corporation of the Year Award; Black Enterprise “Top Companies for Supplier Diversity”; one of the Top 9 corporations for supplier diversity by Diversity, Inc.; and “America’s Top Corporation” by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Norman-Cooper was also named one of the “Top 25 Women in Power Impacting Diversity” by Diversity Plus. In September 2020, she was a panelist on an Aspen Institute webinar, “Creating a Higher Form of Capitalism: How Business Can Be the Catalyst for the Revitalization of Urban Communities.”
She and her husband earned their MBAs from Columbia University in New York City, where they designed a customized curriculum centered around urban entrepreneurship. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism (ABJ) from the University of Georgia. She now lives in Baltimore, where she serves as a supply chain diversity consultant.