By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth. – Jesse Jackson
A grandson of Italian immigrants, Vince DiPofi’s career and strong connection to people attempting to find a better life is as tightly linked to Bancroft Street as the University of Toledo and St. Francis de Sales High School—both of which he and I proudly call alma mater.
Like the stretch of Bancroft that connects these two institutions, Vince’s path has been defined by a steady drive toward excellence. From his early days as a college intern to becoming the chief executive officer (CEO) at SSOE, Vince has built a legacy of leadership, innovation, and community impact over his 40 years of professional experience.
SSOE is one of the fastest-growing firms in the nation. Under DiPofi’s leadership, The Toledo-based international engineering firm has become a “leading edge thought leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and design automation” while thriving in industries ranging from Advanced Technology to Healthcare.
Yet, DiPofi’s strong efforts in developing a culture of inclusion demonstrate that inclusive policies like DEI not only foster growth and profitability but also contribute to creating positive change in the world.
In this week’s conversation, I explore how Vince DiPofi’s journey—rooted on Bancroft Street – and his commitment to DEI – led to groundbreaking success at SSOE.
Perryman: Let’s start at the beginning. How did you arrive as CEO at SSOE?
DiPofi: I was born and raised in Toledo from basic, middle-class roots. My grandparents were Italian immigrants. My father was a City of Toledo policeman, and my mother worked as a retail clerk at the old LaSalle’s and Macy’s stores. I had two brothers and two sisters, so I always had a full house. We’re Catholic, so I’m a St. Francis de Sales graduate.
Perryman: How about after high school?
DiPofi: From a young age, it was drilled into you that education was important to be successful. We had five kids and five college degrees; everybody paid for their own and worked their way through college. SSOE is the second company. I started as an engineer and worked my way up over the years to CEO. That’s the 5,000-foot view.
Perryman: SSOE is known for several Employee Resource Groups (ERG). Please talk a bit about those.
DiPofi: We started employee resource groups about two or three years ago, focusing on our company trying to be more inclusive. When I interviewed people and talked about our company and culture when I became CEO, I was disappointed to learn how people felt that the culture was not inclusive. People didn’t feel like they could be themselves to work.
One of the people I talked to, Anthony Jefferson, said, “Vince, you don’t even know this, but every Black employee that the company hires, I reach out to them and try to make them feel wanted and tell them how the company works and everything. They’re not ever comfortable in this company.” So, it was a real eye-opener for me.
Perryman: How did you then respond?
DiPofi: That was one of the motivations behind me hiring Candice Harrison. Candice has been a mentor to me and taught me to think differently about how people are included and what makes them feel included.
These employee resource groups have been wonderful in allowing people to be themselves and connect with others with similar backgrounds authentically. Since then, our employee engagement scores have increased to the top 10 percent in the country, literally because people feel this is a sign that the company is inclusive.
Moreover, we have found that 25 percent of those hired at SSOE join one of the employee resource groups. It’s really been interesting to see the evolution in our organizational culture. In just two years, we have experienced very quick success.
Perryman: Well, let me compliment you on that effort. A lot of attention is often given to the almost insurmountable problem that minorities encounter in just trying to compete for jobs without having the same opportunities as other, more privileged people. However, once crossing the bridge into corporate or other institutional organizations, minorities might not automatically fit neatly into systems and structures erected for dominant occupants.
So, Blacks and others, once they arrive at a company like SSOE, are often in a completely foreign land without help or guidance. If they are going to be successful, and from personal experience early in my career, they will need assistance and mentoring.
Also, SSOE has been mentioned as a really great place to work, generating a 4.3/5 on Glass Door, and you’ve also won some awards. Talk about that.
DiPofi: First of all, before I do, I want to acknowledge your comment about people getting in the door but then finding out it’s a foreign land. That was a blind spot for me that I didn’t understand until we established the employee resource groups. I want to acknowledge that it was a big change for me to understand that you’re kind of in a foreign land; I see that much better now.
The Entrepreneur of the Year award was based on my work to transform our company culture, but also on how we’ve made digital transformation a big part of the company. The business has grown very well, and I don’t find that to be coincidental with the fact that we’ve become more diverse and expanded the people that come into the company. I think those two have gone hand in hand over the last couple of years.
Perryman: Let’s shift for a moment. How much of SSOE’s $350 million in annual revenue is related to government contracts?
DiPofi: Practically none, directly. Most of my work is not with the federal government. Let’s say we do a lot of work with semiconductor companies, so they are recipients of money from the 2022 Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act (CHIPS) that the government legislated to address the global semiconductor shortage. We’ve done some hospital design work for the Veterans Administration, but most of our work is indirect.
Perryman: Critics argue that diversity is more about optics than outcomes. Can you discuss how your DEI efforts benefit your business and the community?
DiPofi: You’ll find that the more diverse companies are typically more profitable and more successful. There’s plenty of data to support this. We have found that SSOE’s turnover rates are half the industry average. Again, it’s a place where people want to come to work, and they don’t want to leave. We, of course, do our best to be competitive with how we pay our people, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that people like working at this place and feeling comfortable.
When the rest of the industry’s turnover rates are 10 percent, ours is around five to six percent. That’s saving me so much money from retraining people and recruiting costs, so there are tangible business benefits. Not only is our employee satisfaction increasing, but our customer satisfaction is increasing, too.
So, when I say we’ve become a much more diverse company, at the same time, our customer satisfaction has increased. You put all those things together, and it’s benefitted us.
Perryman: How would you respond to those who may complain that diversity initiatives conflict with merit-based advancement?
DiPofi: SSOE never set quotas for the program we established; it has always been merit-based. Our approach was to level the playing field and ensure everybody has the same opportunity, and these employee resource groups have been a big part of that. To your earlier point, if I’m in a foreign land, the chances of me being promoted and advancing are much less than those of someone who knows the land. So doing things like employee resource groups and helping people understand how to navigate a foreign land, as you say, is a big part of that.
Our hiring and promotion are merit-based, and we’ve seen advancement across the spectrum, with more people being hired and more people advanced. I don’t want to report that we’ve got the perfect system and are doing everything right, but we’re improving and making continuous improvement.
Perryman: What metrics are you using to measure the success of your DEI initiative?
DiPofi: The number one factor I look at is our employee engagement scores. Before we started our DEI initiative, those were probably in the high 70s and low 80s, but now they’re in the high 80s. So that’s the first thing I look at: how engaged employees are in the business. Then, I look at customer satisfaction. It’s always very simple: if I have happy employees, they will do better work for the clients, and the clients will be more satisfied.
Then the turnover, how many people are leaving the company to go to my competition and we’re doing way better than our competitors there. Those are business metrics that I look at and say the program is working.
When we started our focus, our total diversity was 25 percent, and now it’s increased to, I think, 35 percent. There’s been a substantial increase because we’ve widened the pool of people we are approaching and are thinking differently about it. For us, the demographics of this country demand that we attract a broader pool of people to come into it, and we’re investing back into our community.
Perryman: Describe the impact on the community.
DiPofi: We’re investing in our communities in STEM-related fields. We’re working closely with Toledo Public Schools and a sponsor of Hawkins Elementary, a STEM-focused school. We’re also working with The University of Toledo to counsel first-generation college students because we find, as you said, they get a scholarship, get good grades in high school, show up at college, and often, it’s a foreign land for them. So, we’ve been focusing on first-year counseling and first-generation college students, who tend to be more diverse.
Perryman: Let me ask you this: how would your company respond if faced with external pressure from the administration to scale back or eliminate your DEI initiatives?
DiPofi: I’ll tell you exactly what I told our employees. First of all, we have to comply with the law, whatever the law is, but since we never established quotas, we are already in compliance with the law. So, for us, there’s no pushback. We already have a merit-based program that successfully attracts diverse populations, brings them into the company, and advances them.
This, then, is exactly my message: we’re doing the right thing, we’re doing things the right way, we’re not going to change what we’re doing.
Perryman: Final question. History is full of real “hidden figures,” the Black engineers, scientists, mathematicians and inventors whose vital contributions are untold or erased from American history – figures from HBCUs like Jesse Eugene Russell, who revolutionized cell phone technology. Without Russell, there would be no wireless networks or cell phones.
Dr. Valerie Thomas created the technology that led to 3D imaging, without which there would be no virtual reality or advanced medical imaging equipment or procedures. Without Gladys West, GPS technology, Google Maps, or our automobiles’ turn-by-turn directions would not exist.
Please discuss a “hidden figure” at SSOE in terms of DEI’s tangible impact.
DiPofi: One key area I’d like to highlight is Artificial Intelligence (AI). One standout contributor to our AI efforts is Chelsea Kania. She is the Product Support Manager for our Technology group. Chelsea plays an essential role on the AI team.
I recently attended a full-day workshop with her and the AI team. Chelsea has demonstrated her deep expertise and has worked to vet the many AI suppliers to ensure data integrity. This committee reports directly to the CEO and works on AI technology, SSOE’s highest priority. Chelsea was selected based on her broad understanding of technology at SSOE, which made her a natural fit for this high-priority initiative.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org