Month: April 2024

SEATTLE, April 19, 2024 /3BL/ – KeyBank (NYSE: KEY) announced it has received the honor of ranking #1 for the most small business loans $350,000 or less in Washington Congressional Districts 1, 3, 7, 8, and 9 by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 2023 fiscal year. Districts include:

Washington’s 1st Congressional District encompasses part of Bellevue and Kirkland, following I-5 up to Arlington.
 Washington’s 3rd Congressional District includes the Southwestern part of the state.
 Washington’s 7th Congressional District covers most of Seattle up to Shoreline, the University District, West Seattle, and Vashon.
 Washington’s 8th Congressional District is the bullseye of the state covering the vast middle.
 Washington’s 9th Congressional District stretches from Federal Way up to the bottom of Bellevue and includes Mercer Island and the Southeastern part of Seattle proper.

“We are very excited to receive this honor from the SBA here in Washington. Access to capital is a struggle for many small businesses, but through partnerships and relationships, KeyBank is making that happen,” said James Fliss, Jr., KeyBank Senior Vice President, National SBA Manager. “We believe that small businesses are the backbone to a thriving community, we couldn’t be prouder of our team.”

KeyBank has been a top-performing SBA Preferred Lender for over two decades1, helping numerous small businesses obtain access to capital through the SBA lending programs. Since 2015, KeyBank has provided more than $2.6 billion in SBA-guaranteed financing to thousands of small business owners with more than $1.29 billion of that funding occurring in the last four years.

“Small businesses consistently identify financing as a top need, but access to capital often brings challenges and barriers for many small business owners. This is why the work the SBA does, in tandem with a robust network of lenders, is so critical,” SBA Seattle District Director Melanie Norton said. “During Fiscal Year 2023 alone, approximately $900 million in SBA loans were made across the SBA Seattle District. We’re grateful to KeyBank for being one of the top lenders in the district to make loans under $350,000 during the past year and ensuring small businesses with smaller dollar needs were not overlooked. We will continue our work together to make certain no entrepreneur is left behind.”

ABOUT KEYBANK

KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $188 billion at December 31, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United State under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit. https://www.key.com/. KeyBank Member FDIC. SBA LOANS ARE NOT FDIC INSURED OR GUARANTEED. All credit products and SBA Loans are subject to approval, terms, conditions, and availability and subject to change. 

1 KeyBank has held the Preferred Lender designation since 1997

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At Tapestry we believe that difference sparks brilliance. Equity, inclusion and diversity (EI&D) pave the way for unlocking the potential of our people, our business and our communities. As such, we aim to cultivate possibilities for everyone, including our business partners.

Embracing our responsibility in the marketplace as a global fashion company is a key focus of EI&D at Tapestry. We are committed to affecting positive change for our industry and delivering on our value proposition to stakeholders – consumers, investors, employees and vendor partners. And we know that doing business with a diverse range of vendors serves to enhance the strength of Tapestry as a whole.

In March, Tapestry hosted its inaugural Vendor Diversity Business Development Forum at the company’s headquarters in New York City. The event was developed to connect diverse vendors with our sourcing team and business stakeholders in-person. The day brought together five of Tapestry’s vendors and select members of their teams from across the U.S. to share learnings and best practices from certified diverse vendors capable of fulfilling Tapestry’s current and future procurement opportunities.

The event kicked off with a session from Tapestry’s Chief Diversity Officer, David Casey and Rondette Amoy Smith, Director, Global Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity. Casey and Amoy Smith spoke about their team’s efforts and goals at Tapestry and specifically how they are focused on educating, equipping and empowering the business to leverage EI&D as a differentiator in our workforce and marketplace. 

Jason Livingston, Manager of Tapestry’s Vendor Diversity Program, gave an overview of Tapestry’s Vendor Diversity Program, progress to date and forward-looking plans. Each vendor was then invited to introduce themselves and describe how they work with Tapestry.

One of the many highlights of the forum was a panel discussion that included one representative from each vendor. The vibrant discussions included topics such as dispelling common myths about diverse vendors, the benefits of working with a diverse vendor, and the challenges diverse vendors face when doing business with corporations. Balancing out the day was a presentation by the advocacy group Disability:IN, where we learned that most disabilities are non-apparent.

Tapestry is proud of the progress we’ve made to develop and implement a formal vendor diversity program and we’ve only just begun our journey. Looking ahead, we aim to pursue a best-in-class corporate program, including accountability throughout the organization, advancing our partnerships with advocacy groups and tracking tier two performance.

Brian Spitzkeit, Senior Vice President of Global Procurement and Transportation said, “This was a great opportunity to hear a wide variety of perspectives from our vendor community and advocacy groups. We are still at the beginning of our Vendor Diversity journey at Tapestry but events like this help accelerate our learnings and provide clarity on our path forward.”

Christiane Ocampo, Vice President, Global Procurement, Tapestry said, “The inaugural Tapestry Vendor Diversity Business Development Forum was exactly what I thought it would be – A collaborative space to share information with stakeholders and vendors. We can leverage what we learned to help continue to elevate Tapestry’s Vendor Diversity program.”

Kirsten Craig from Activate, an experiential marketing company, was in attendance and said, “This was probably one of the most helpful and…insightful supplier diversity experiences that I’ve had in our 10 years of being certified. I also really appreciated that Tapestry brands had their full procurement team here to listen and learn. It’s amazing to be heard, but what’s really exciting is building a relationship so that we can continue expanding our work together.”

Interested in working with Tapestry? Learn more about our vendor diversity program here.