Vincent Williams

Vincent Williams is the Founder and Principal Consultant for JV Williams Consulting Group, a strategic consulting firm in Chicago with a focus on strategy, DEI, minority certification and economic empowerment for disinvested communities.  He previously served as the 5th President and Chief Executive Officer for the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council, the premier organization for the development of minority businesses.  The organization works succinctly with the National Minority Supplier Development Council and is responsible for certifying, advocating, developing and connecting minority businesses with major buying organizations and government entities, tracking economic impact and growth for minority businesses and operates the Northwest Indiana MSDC, Missouri MBDA Business Center. His prior position as Vice President of Economic Empowerment and the Director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago involved facilitating and coordinating the services of the Illinois SBDC and its initiatives of encouraging economic growth and development while creating, identifying and cultivating strategic partnerships within the communities around Chicagoland, particularly on the South and West Sides that have been historically marginalized and disinvested in, helping to eliminate racism and empower communities.

As a small business owner himself, he also provides subject matter expertise, webinars, resources, programs and one-on-one advising to aid small business owners and entrepreneurs seeking to start, scale/grow or retire their business. He is a business mentor at University of Chicago’s Polsky Entrepreneurship Center as well as a mentor at Loyola University Chicago’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility and Chicago Urban League’s Impact Leadership Development Program. He was recently named by Crain's Chicago Business as one of their 2021 most notable executives in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and has been featured in Black Enterprise Magazine as a “Black Enterprise Modern Man.” He serves on several boards including the Illinois Small Business Development Centers Advisory Board, Associated Colleges of Illinois, Illinois Diversity Council, First Women’s Bank of Illinois and Partners in Community Building Illinois. He also was nominated to Diversity MBA Magazine’s Elite List of Top 100 Emerging Executive Leaders Under the age of 50, is a native South-Sider and comes from a family of entrepreneurs. He received a dual MBA in Finance and Management at The Morris Graduate School of Management in Chicago and holds the prestigious Non-Profit Executive Leadership Certification from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.