Stanford T. Williams, Jr., is the Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer of Messer Construction. He is part of the Executive Group within the company. Messer is a $2.0 Billion-dollar, 1500 employee-owned, general contractor and complex commercial, general construction Management Company. Messer operates in twelve regions in six states. Stanford joined Messer in November of 2005 as the Director of Economic Inclusion, was promoted to Vice President and Officer in 2008 before being promoted to Executive Vice President in 2015.

In his role, Stanford provides strategic direction, thought leadership and champions the development of an inclusive environment by integrating best –in-class diversity practices in all aspects of the business. In his initial role at Messer, he created Messer’s Economic Inclusion Department and oversaw the Supplier and Workforce Diversity initiatives within Messer. During his tenure, Messer’s Supplier Diversity spend had grown from $38 million to over $275 million. This represented annually, at least 21% spend with minority and women-owned contractors. Additionally, Messer has increased its hiring of diverse candidates to over 15%, each of the last 3 years. Messer has received numerous awards for their efforts in Supplier and Workforce Diversity, both locally and on the national level under Stanford’s Leadership.

Stanford currently serves on the Cincinnati Opera, and the Messer Construction Boards. In his professional career, he has served on over forty boards both for profit and non-profit and has served as Chairman on twelve of those boards.

Stanford received his Master of Business Administration from Howard University with a concentration in Finance and Marketing and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Curry College, in Political Science.