February 17, 2022

University of Wollongong announces membership of Supply Nation

Membership reinforces UOW’s commitment to supplier diversity and helping increase the Indigenous business sector

The University of Wollongong (UOW) has officially signed a membership with Supply Nation, the leader of supplier diversity in Australia providing UOW with access to the biggest national database of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and organisations.

Supply Nation connects its members to Indigenous suppliers to build a vibrant and prosperous Indigenous business sector by incorporating Indigenous owned businesses into the supply chain of Australian companies and government agencies.

UOW Procurement Manager John Da Fonte described the membership as an important part of UOW’s commitment to supplier diversity.

“Our new membership with Supply Nation will reinforce UOW’s commitment to diversity, within the workforce and procurement processes whilst contributing to building a strong, successful and sustainable Indigenous business sector,” he said.

Supply Nation Chief Executive Officer, Ms Laura Berry, said: “We are delighted to welcome University of Wollongong into the Supply Nation community and look forward to working with them to develop their supplier diversity footprint. The measure of our collective success will be in the value of transactions between University of Wollongong and Indigenous businesses.”

UOW Executive Director (Indigenous Strategy) Jaymee Beveridge said she was proud to know UOW was genuinely committed to locating and financially supporting Aboriginal owned and operated suppliers.

“As members, we have access to this database which enables us to actively facilitate self-determination with Aboriginal businesses,” Ms Beveridge said.

The new annual membership will enable UOW to continue to achieve its Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) goals and strengthen the University’s capacity to advance practises around supplier diversity, by working together to deliver positive social and business outcomes to build a strong, successful and sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business sector.

The membership is the culmination of work at UOW to move beyond a commitment of investigating this collaboration to solidifying a formal membership. UOW will now proudly wear the Supply Nation Member badge.

The membership provides additional tools and support to unlock training and provides opportunities to connect with Supply Nation Certified and Registered Indigenous business owners and managers in a meaningful way.

This membership is the latest initiative by UOW designed to help close the gap for Australia’s Indigenous peoples and communities.

About Supply Nation

Supply Nation collaborate with over 3,000 verified Indigenous businesses through Indigenous Business Direct. Supply Nation adopts specialised verification processes to ensure that business located on their Indigenous Business Direct database are all owned and operated by Indigenous peoples.

There are two streams of verification, Registered and Certified. Registered businesses are 50 per cent or more Indigenous owned, whereas Certified businesses are 51 per cent or more Indigenous owned, managed and controlled.