Kristin Malek
TALK
How Supply Chains Taught Me the Power of Purchase
Over the last several years, stories about snarled supply chains featured prominently in our economic news. But supply chains aren’t just logistics problems for businesses to iron out. Kristin, a recognized expert in business diversity, explains how thinking critically about supply chains can help businesses and consumers tap into a world of unique perspectives, foster job creation, and provide meaningful opportunities in places that badly need them.
ABOUT
Kristin Malek serves as the Director of Business Diversity at CDW. In this role, Malek has firmly established an innovative business diversity strategy that aligns with CDW’s core values.
As the architect of CDW’s diverse supply chain with more than 1100+ suppliers, Malek ensures CDW’s continued investment in diversity, equality, and inclusion within their businesses. She is responsible for the firm’s total spend with diverse partners that in 2022 alone reached more than $3Billion. Under Kristin’s leadership, CDW was inducted into the prestigious Billion Dollar Roundtable and was named a Supplier Diversity Excellence Champion by Gartner.
Malek is a member of the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC), an advisory board member for Chicago Blend, and serves as Vice Chair of the Chicago Minority Supplier Diversity Council. As a proponent of women in technology, she is involved with Tech Scale, an advocacy group for diversity in supply chain within tech and is an executive board member for SheTek, a non-profit in New York City focused on women and young girls participating in STEM.
She has been featured in Professional Woman Magazine, Diversity Professional Magazine, and Women’s Enterprise. Malek is a Cornell University graduate, a native of Illinois and has held leadership roles in Canada during her 20 year tenure at Target.
Malek is mother to two young girls and fosters their curiosity, independence and education but most of all grit and a will to succeed. Kristin Malek has been named one of the Top 15 Women in Power Impacting Diversity by Diversity Professional Magazine, one of New York City’s Most Responsible 100 by City & State NY, and a 40 under 40 New York Rising Star by City & State NY.