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Corporate Awardees

Bill MacGowan

 


William MacGowan, Chief Human Resources Officer and
Executive Vice President of People and Places

Sun Microsystems

Bill MacGowan is focused on Sun's biggest asset, its workforce. His mission is to attract, develop and retain outstanding talent for Sun and provide them with the knowledge and work environment to perform at their best.

MacGowan's People and Places organization is responsible for developing reward strategies that attract the best and brightest people, creating innovative learning and development opportunities for employees, providing flexible work arrangement through Sun's Open Work program that allows us to draw on a broad, diverse talent pool, managing Sun's global facilities portfolio and identifying strategic locations targeted for workforce growth.

MacGowan was most recently the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Sun Microsystems. In this role, he set the strategic direction for HR and organized the function to focus on several big pieces of work: advising Sun's executives on workforce and organizational issues, delivering HR services to Sun's global workforce, establishing strong total rewards packages for employees, and driving company-wide employee communications.

MacGowan joined Sun Microsystems in June 1998 to lead HR for Sun's Enterprise Services division. He has served as Vice President of HR for Sun's Systems, Storage and Operations business groups, and Vice President of Human Resources, Global Centers of Expertise.

Previously, Bill was a Vice President of Human Resources for Quest Diagnostics and Corning Inc. Earlier in his career he gained extensive HR experience at Allergan and at Northrop Grumman.

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Awarded Posthumously

Dave Sampson
 


Dave Sampson, Senior Vice President, Diversity Initiatives & Corporate Officer

Marriott

 

Sampson’s service and leadership at Marriott spanned more than 25 years and his leadership left an indelible imprint on the company and its diversity efforts.
Sampson helped to launch Project Excel, which expanded and strengthened the company’s strategic alliances in the minority community, took the company to record levels in supplier diversity spending and opened the door to new development opportunities for minority owners and franchisees.  Sampson was instrumental in attracting customers across a wide spectrum of women’s and minority organizations.  Sampson was also a popular mentor for many key executives and managers.

Thanks to Sampson’s hard work and leadership, Marriott was ranked among the best lodging companies by the NAACP, listed in the top 25 places to work by Black Enterprise magazine, and named one of the best 50 companies for Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine.
Prior to serving as senior vice president of diversity initiatives, Sampson served in Employee Relations, Human Resources and Equal Opportunity Employment.  In 1999, he became a Corporate Officer.

In 2004, Sampson received the prestigious Donald H. McGannon Award from the National Urban League, which recognizes personal commitment to ideals and beliefs in equal opportunity for all.  Sampson also served on the Project Equality Board, the Executive Committee and Board of the Equal Employment Advisory Council, the Board of the Baltimore Urban League, and President’s Committee for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities.  Sampson touched many lives and shaped equally as many careers as a mentor, community leader and Marriott's diversity champion.          

 

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