Monica McCoy
Most large organisations have an inclusion policy and a procurement function that barely speak to each other. Programmes designed to bring underrepresented founders into the supply chain stall because the operational mechanics, sourcing, qualification, contract size, payment terms, do not move with the rhetoric. The result is intent without throughput, and a small number of diverse suppliers cycling through the same RFPs.
Monica McCoy helps large organisations turn supplier diversity and inclusion commitments into measurable founder access, through programme design built on fifteen years inside The Coca-Cola Company and a client base of Fortune 500 procurement leaders.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Monica McCoy
- She built her practice from inside a Fortune 100 procurement and strategy function, not from advocacy. Her recommendations work because they account for how large companies actually source.
- Her trademarked Pitch University and Global Supplier Diversity Conference are operating programmes with named corporate partners, including Microsoft, Porsche, and Santander, not concepts.
- She works upstream of typical DEI conversations, on the pipeline of founders that procurement teams can credibly contract with, which is where most inclusion strategies break down.
- Her non-profit Pivot Purposefully extends the same discipline to formerly incarcerated women founders, giving her a defensible position on inclusion that goes beyond corporate audiences.
Biography highlights
- Founder and CEO, Monica Motivates, LLC (2017 to present); supports 38 Fortune 500 clients on supplier diversity and inclusion delivery
- Fifteen years at The Coca-Cola Company, most recently Acting Global Director of Strategy and Innovation, McDonald’s Division
- Creator of Pitch University, the Annual Global Supplier Diversity Conference, and a Microsoft-backed accelerator for commercial real estate founders
- Founder, Pivot Purposefully, non-profit supporting formerly incarcerated women entrepreneurs
- Recognitions include American Express Founder of Change (2020), Porsche Driven Women (2021), Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All (Women’s Economic Forum), YWCA Corporate Woman of Achievement (2015)
- BA Psychology, Emory University; Oxford College Alumni Board
Biography
Most corporate inclusion programmes fail at the seam between policy and procurement. The policy gets signed. The procurement function keeps sourcing from the same qualified vendor pool. The pipeline of underrepresented founders never reaches contract size. This is the gap Monica McCoy spent fifteen years observing from inside The Coca-Cola Company, and the one her firm now exists to close.
Monica Motivates, founded in 2017, works with 38 Fortune 500 clients, including Microsoft, Porsche, and Santander, on the practical mechanics of bringing underrepresented founders into corporate supply chains. The firm’s programmes are operating, not conceptual. Pitch University trains founders for the specific pitch standards large companies use. The Annual Global Supplier Diversity Conference puts buyers and suppliers in the same room at scale. A Microsoft-backed accelerator focuses on commercial real estate, where founder access has historically been narrowest.
The corporate credentials sit underneath this work. McCoy was Acting Global Director of Strategy and Innovation for the McDonald’s Division at Coca-Cola, a role that gave her direct exposure to how a Fortune 100 firm sources, qualifies, and contracts at scale. That experience is what makes her programmes legible to procurement leaders, not just to inclusion officers.
Her non-profit, Pivot Purposefully, applies the same discipline to a harder constituency, formerly incarcerated women founding businesses. Recognition from the Women’s Economic Forum, American Express, Porsche, and the YWCA tracks the same throughline: inclusion treated as a delivery problem.
Key speaking topics
- Supplier diversity programme design
- Founder pipeline and access for underrepresented entrepreneurs
- Inclusion as procurement capability
- Entrepreneurial pitch and storytelling discipline
- Corporate strategy and innovation at Fortune 100 scale
- Personal brand and executive presence for senior women
Ideal for
- CHROs, chief diversity officers, and heads of supplier diversity at large corporates
- Procurement and category leaders responsible for diverse sourcing targets
- Founder networks and accelerator audiences focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs
- Senior women’s leadership programmes inside Fortune 500 organisations
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of where inclusion policy stalls inside procurement and category management
- Specific programme structures that have moved underrepresented founders into Fortune 500 supply chains
- A defensible position on inclusion grounded in operating mechanics, not advocacy framing
- Practical pitch and access standards founders need to clear to win corporate contracts
Talks
A talk on the cognitive patterns, perfectionism, imposter dynamics, and risk avoidance, that hold high-potential women and people of colour back from senior advancement.
Key takeaways:
- The specific cognitive distortions that compound in underrepresented senior talent
- Practical reframes used inside Fortune 500 leadership programmes
- Where organisational systems amplify these patterns and how to interrupt them
A direct account of the structural and behavioural barriers women hit in corporate and entrepreneurial settings, with strategies drawn from McCoy’s Fortune 100 career and consulting practice.
Key takeaways:
- The barriers that disproportionately affect women’s advancement and funding
- Tactical responses that have worked across corporate and founder contexts
- What allies and senior leaders can do operationally, not symbolically
A talk on personal brand, executive presence, and reputation management borrowed from corporate brand discipline.
Key takeaways:
- How Fortune 100 brand management principles translate to individual reputation
- The components of executive presence that compound over a career
- Where personal brand investment pays back, and where it does not