We help organizations create competitive advantage by leveraging Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as a business strategy.

Denise James Gatling, founder and CEO of The Gatling Agency, LLC (TGA), has over 30 years of experience working in the corporate sector at senior and executive levels in finance and diversity. Before establishing TGA, Denise held an executive role in procurement where she led global supplier diversity and business development at GlaxoSmithKline, a multi-national pharmaceutical company.

Throughout her career, Denise has implemented diversity initiatives to achieve company goals by designing and developing business cases, research studies, education awareness, and strategic plans. An expert in the leveraging of diversity, Denise is highly sought after to speak at national and international conferences. For example, as a U.S. corporate delegate to Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, she presented strategies for the implementation of diversity initiatives in support of international business operations and underserved communities.

Denise is a results-oriented change agent for equality. That much was shown when she led a coalition of corporate, business, and advocacy leaders to address the arbitrarily set “net worth cap limit” that created inequities and prohibited equal access to corporate and  government procurement opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses. Additionally, she provided and facilitated input through congressional roundtables and testimonies before the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to tear down barriers to economic development which resulted in revisions to existing regulation.

Over the years, Denise has provided interactive and proactive leadership in community service and business advocacy. Some of her involvement portfolio includes: Board member and Vice-Chair of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity, Board member of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Women’s Leadership Board, Board member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Co-founder of the Supplier Diversity Pharmaceutical Forum, Treasurer of GlaxoSmithKline’s Political Action Committee, and member of the Advisory Council of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Office of Civil Rights.

Denise earned a Master of Business Administration from Meredith College and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Management) from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. She is certified in lean six sigma.