Tara Spann

Tara Spann is a highly accomplished and enterprising People, Strategy, Diversity & Inclusion Professional with more than 18 years of leadership experience in Inclusive Excellence, Cultural Transformation, Strategy Development and Execution, Process Improvement and Emerging D&I Practices in Higher Education. In her most recent role, Ms. Spann served as the Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Eversource Energy. Some significant achievements in this role include leading strategy development and execution, cultivating the corporate culture by improving and increasing numerous D&I practices and metrics, developing a new scorecard engagement metric with executive leadership, creating the first-ever D&I annual report and leading Eversource Energy to the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to this role, Ms. Spann was the Director, Global Economic Inclusion & Supplier Diversity for Merck & Co. Inc. Here she oversaw all diversity and economic inclusion efforts within the global supply chain while driving revenue, savings, working capital, and innovation for the company. She served as the internal and external spokesperson for global economic inclusion and supplier diversity and lead Merck to be the 1st purely pharmaceutical company in the Billion Dollar Roundtable. In previous corporate Diversity & Inclusion leadership roles, Ms. Spann was the Associate Director & Executive Lead, Supplier Diversity for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Executive Director, Diversity Initiatives for Staples, Inc. She began her Engineering career as a Senior Electrical & Controls Engineer for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation, and as an Electrical & Electronics Engineer for the Department of Defense (Navy Communications & Weapons Systems). She continued her career as an Intellectual Property Legal Consultant and Process Engineer for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Patent Prosecution Consultant & Computer Design Engineer for Benman, Collins & Sawyer in Silicon Valley. Ms. Spann has worked for Harvard University as the Contract Manager, Government Compliance Officer and Minority Purchasing Coordinator where she accomplished maximum economic efficiencies through new, innovative sourcing and procurement processes. Additionally, she established numerous strategic alliances that resulted in decreased spend and streamlined business processes. Ms. Spann also served as Harvard University’s Senior Software Licensing Negotiator. Ms. Spann earned a Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University. She has been featured in numerous publications, with featured articles, including: Color Magazine (Tara Spann: Embracing Her Power at Eversource, May 21, 2019); Women’s Enterprise Top 100 Leaders in Corporate Supplier Diversity (2017); Minority Business News (MBN) USA Champions of Supplier Diversity (2016); Diversity Plus Magazine Top 25 Women in Power Impacting Diversity (2015); Diversity MBA Magazine’s Top 100 Diverse Emerging Leaders (2009); and Global EXEC Women International Women of Influence Award Recipient (2009). Furthermore, she has been the recipient of and responsible for a multitude of prestigious Professional and Diversity & Inclusion Awards, including: Top 100 Under 50 Executive and Emerging Leader Award (Diversity MBA Magazine); Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; American Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Sustainability Award; Women’s Enterprise USA 100 Corporation of the Year; Diversity Inc. Top 50 for Diversity; and Center for Women in Enterprise Corporation of the Year. Ms. Spann has also served as a panelist, speaker, keynote speaker, and moderator during her numerous speaking engagements and public relations appearances. Ms. Spann is committed to economic inclusion and social justice, having been a key leader on numerous boards, including: Diversity Alliance for Science (Co-Chair); Billion Dollar Roundtable Corporate Representative; Disability:IN Procurement Council; Diversity Information Resources Board; WEConnect International Corporate Advisory Board; Women’s Business Enterprise National Council Board of Directors (Chair, Sales & Marketing Committee); and WEConnect Canada Corporate Advisory Board.