MGM MIRAGE adopts Hispanic initiatives

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Sept. 10, 2001 | 10:43 a.m.

Hispanics who work for MGM MIRAGE may now have a clearer advancement path.

A meeting Friday between the resort company and the Washington-based Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility resulted in several company initiatives aimed at increasing the number of Hispanics in MGM MIRAGE's executive ranks and boosting the casino giant's purchases of goods and services from Hispanic-owned businesses.

Tony Gladney, vice president of corporate diversity, said the initiatives include:

An affinity group, a link between management and Hispanic employees seeking advancement within the company.

Recruitment from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, which represents 310 colleges and universities around the country with 25 percent Hispanic enrollment.

Marketing through the National Association of Hispanic Publications, a group that represents 210 newspapers and magazines nationwide, with 10 million total circulation, for increased advertising to Hispanics.

Diversification of the company's philanthropy portfolio to include Hispanic-led community organizations.

It was the first such plan to reach out to Hispanics in Las Vegas' resort industry, according to the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility -- one that the nonprofit group hopes will be used as a model for other casinos in Las Vegas.

In August, MGM MIRAGE became the first corporate member from the hotel, entertainment and gaming sector to join the association.

The association helps companies develop plans for hiring more Hispanics in upper management and for increasing purchasing and contracting from Hispanic-owned businesses. It has already worked with such companies as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, General Motors and Coors to diversify the way they do business.

"We've dealt with the McDonald's of the world. Now we're taking on the hotel and casino industry," Chairman Ronald Blackburn-Moreno said.

Association board member Raul Araujo pointed out two differences between the industry MGM MIRAGE represents and the others his group has assisted.

"First of all, the gaming industry here is more complex than these other companies. You have everything from chefs to lawyers working here.

"Secondly, most of the other companies we've worked with over the years didn't approach us up front. First they had to go through boycotts -- which was the case with Coors, in the 1980s, or lawsuits -- as with Texaco, in the 1990s.

"They've tried to diversify only when they felt they had to. But MGM MIRAGE sought our help without first having a problem over the issue."

MGM MIRAGE did receive what Blackburn-Moreno called "a wakeup call" in May, when the local chapter of the NAACP drew the company's attention to a lack of purchasing and contracting from minority-owned businesses.

The company then opened an office to address the diversity issue. The office analyzed the company's personnel in terms of racial and ethnic groups for the first time. It found that 27 percent of 37,300 employees in its Clark County properties are Hispanic, while only 0.76 percent of 170 its executives at the level of vice president or above are Hispanic.

Blackburn-Moreno pointed out that the initiatives are good business.

"This company has stockholders to respond to," he said. "And taking into account the fastest growing consumer population in the United States makes good sense when it comes to the bottom line."