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Diane Delaware, ‘71

The Honorable Diane Delaware is a native of Yazoo City, Mississippi and graduated from N. D. Taylor High School. She received her undergraduate degree from Jackson State University and her Master’s degree from the University of Missouri.  

Diane began her professional career in Jackson, Mississippi with the Xerox Corporation as a Collection Correspondent, where she quickly moved to sales covering the major accounts in the financial, government and manufacturing sector.  After her promotion to Sales Manager, Diane went on to run the Xerox Offices in Dallas and Houston, Texas as Marketing Operations Manager and Branch Marketing Manager respectively.  Being recognized as the top Marketing Manager across a 10-state Region; Diane was selected to assist in the transformation of the Company and was promoted to Director of Quality and Knowledge Management at the Xerox National Headquarters.  There she pioneered and deployed the leading edge Six Sigma Process company-wide which resulted in a profitable revenue growth and millions in cost cutting savings.

Following this success, Diane was promoted to Director of Major Account Negotiations where she was responsible for major account revenues totaling in excess of Three Billion Dollars in U.S. revenues annually.  Diane's career spans all areas of business operations for the Xerox Corporation.  She also managed the Latin American and European Manufacturing Operations Quality for the Company.  Furthering her education while at Xerox, Diane attended the Insead University (known as the Harvard of Europe) in Fontainebleau, just outside of Paris, France.  She completed the Executive Business Management Program and went on to complete the Marketing Executive Program at the Columbia University School of Marketing in New York City.  The CEO selected Diane to lead the transformation of the world-wide manufacturing organization and with that success; the organization awarded Diane Delaware with the Malcolm Baldrige Award for Excellence by the United States Government.

As the Global Vice President of Marketing Operations for the Xerox Corporation covering marketing for the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa and South America; Diane launched a new line of products that we all use today in our everyday lives: multifunctional printers and copiers.  During her career, Diane served as Senior Vice President of Knowledge Management and Quality for the Xerox Corporation where she resided in England and traversed the globe to build talent and capital in the new international markets of Russia, China, India, Dubai, Brazil, and throughout the European countries.  In her last role at Xerox, Diane was Senior Vice President of Emerging Markets leading operations for the countries noted here.

Diane has consulted for Lockheed Martin, Credit Suisse, American Express, Frito-Lay, IBM, and the Stamford Connecticut Public Schools, creating its first Bullying Program, as well as many other international organizations.  Diane Delaware has received national and international honors and awards from the National Association of Black Engineers, the NAACP, The Urban League, the Executive Leadership Council, the Russian Marketing Association, The National Sales Association, Athena, The National Association of Quality Control and, of course, numerous awards from the Xerox Corporation. In 2011, Diane was honored for her contributions to the advancement of women in American business by the Black Women's Leadership Council, the national organization representing Black women in Corporate America.  Diane is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.  In 2014, she became the first female, African American mayor of Yazoo City.