Corporate America Supporting Veterans
Recognizing the tremendous sacrifice military members, veterans and their families make for the nation
has been at the core of the mission for much of corporate America. To assist Veterans as they transition
to civilian life or seek to balance their careers with continued service in the Armed Forces, these
corporations share ways they provide support.
“Veterans are an asset to our country, to our communities and to
corporations like Lockheed Martin,” states Cheryl Kern, Director of Global
Diversity & Inclusion, Lockheed Martin. “At Lockheed Martin, we’re proud of the
fact that one in five of our employees has served in the military – we embrace the
unique skills and experiences they bring to our workforce.”
Every year, the dedicated military relations team at Lockheed Martin reaches
more than 20,000 transitioning service members and veterans through “Military
Connect,” the Lockheed Martin online talent community, and through the
participation in 170 military- and veteran-focused hiring events each year.
Lockheed Martin also supports veteran-owned companies; in 2017, the
company did more than $550 million in business with more than 850
veteran-owned small businesses.
Lockheed Martin is proud of their efforts toward Veterans but two particular
successful partnerships are the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes
Program and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse
University.
Lockheed Martin funds Hiring Our Heroes transition summits and traditional
hiring fairs to help connect transitioning service members, veterans and military
spouses to meaningful employment. Additionally, the company supports the
Chamber Foundation’s Corporate Fellowship Program, which places service
members in 12-week fellowships with participating companies before they
transition. At Lockheed Martin, more than 26 Fellows have been placed into
permanent roles in high-demand skill areas.
Lockheed Martin is a founding partner of the Coalition for Veteran Owned
Business, and funds the Center of Excellence for Veteran Entrepreneurship through
Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. These programs
help veterans and their families establish, grow and thrive as small business
owners. Lockheed Martin’s dedicated supplier diversity team is very engaged in
the partnership, participating in training and boot camps to help position veteran
business owners for success in large corporate supply chains, like Lockheed
Martin’s.
Lockheed Martin hosts a Military Skills Translator tool that helps service
members decode their MOS for the civil job market. In addition, the Military
Transition Managers helps ease the transition for veterans joining the workforce.
Lockheed Martin is designated as a Silver Military Friendly® Employer on the
2018 GI Jobs “Military Friendly® Status.” They have also been named a Top
Military Friendly® Employer for the last 11 years.
“Veterans are focused on the delivery of response and delivering a goal,” shares
Ray Kerins, Senior Vice President and Head of Communications, Government
Relations & Policy for Bayer.
“They are people who are trained by the U.S. government to achieve a goal.
They are loyal, dedicated and their mind and body are trained to succeed. When
we have the opportunity to hire a veteran, we are looking at them.”
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the Life Science fields
of health care and agriculture. Its products and services are designed to benefit
people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the group aims to
create value through innovation, growth and high earning power.
Today Bayer attracts Veterans through one of its strongest employee
resource group, BRAVE (Bayer Resource for Armed forces Veterans/family and
friends of Employees), a group that supports military veteran issues, military
culture and military working values. Through BRAVE’s efforts, Bayer has been able
to partner with unique organizations like Hirepurpose to attract talented veterans
and VETTED.
“Brave is helping drive the company into a better understanding of how not
just recruit and retain veterans, but how to be a better company,” shares Kerins.
“Bayer is a company that is working hard on many fronts to support our veterans
not just internally with our programs, but also by giving them an opportunity to
branch out and work with the community.”
One of the programs Bayer supports is VETTED. VETTED started by a group
of navy seals and is an initiative that helps veterans gain the confidence they need
to thrive in the business world.
The Vetted Foundation has partnered with top university business programs
around that country that work to set transitioning Military members on a direct path
for success in the private sector.
Additional programs include K9 for warriors: an organization dedicated to
providing service canines to Warriors suffering from Post-traumatic Stress
By Gloria Romano-Barrera
34 LATINAStyle www.latinastyle.com Vol. 24, No. 6, 2018
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