SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Polk has named Marc Bland as the company’s head of diversity and inclusion.

In his new role, Bland will have several responsibilities, including the development and enhancement of Polk’s multi-cultural business opportunities among client and supplier organizations. He also will serve as the primary adviser to senior leadership at Polk regarding diversity practices that support Polk’s overall business strategy and goals. Additionally, Bland will develop a long-term strategy, initiatives and processes for integrating diversity goals into Polk’s business practices. He also will work closely with the purchasing and human resources teams on supplier and workforce diversity and inclusion initiatives.

"As we seek to help customers improve their marketing efforts with diverse audiences, Marc’s industry experience, product expertise and broad knowledge will be valuable for them," said Tim Rogers, Polk president. "Continuing our drive to be an employer of choice, I’m also looking forward to working with Marc to build upon the internal diversity efforts we have in place currently at Polk."

Bland joined Polk in 1999 and has held several roles within the organization, including senior systems developer, solutions consultant and manager of the analytic solutions production team. He most recently served as product strategist within the strategy and planning team.

During his career at Polk, Bland has been instrumental in helping the company reach multicultural agencies as well as being actively involved in speaking engagements at ethnic-based industry events such as the annual Rainbow Push Auto Symposium, the Target Market News Black Consumer Research Summit and the National Association of Minority Auto Dealers (NAMAD) National Conference. He has also been a key factor in helping form Polk’s partnership with the Decisive Media Group (formerly OnWheels).