Bertrand Damiba is a product management director at Google and the winner of the 2024 Rodney Adkins Legacy Award.

The Rodney C. Adkins Legacy Award for Business Transformation honors Rod Adkins, the 2007 Black Engineer of the Year, who played a significant role in transforming IBM and developing strategies for a new era of computing, new markets, and new clients.

Bertrand has worked in the technology industry for 24 years and has contributed to various areas such as logistics, finance, program management, diversity, equity and inclusion, automation, and sales/retail. He is well-versed in the latest trends and technologies and has led several successful projects to improve productivity and efficiency.

Before joining Google, Bertrand worked at IBM, startups, and Nuance Communications. At Google, he has held different product management roles in the areas of language and technology, such as leading media, communications, language and learning, and features, and founding the product inclusion team. Currently, he is the director of communications and core user experience (UX) for Gmail.

The Rodney Adkins Legacy Award has been presented to several distinguished individuals, including Verett Mims, assistant treasurer in Boeing’s global treasury operations, and Paul F. McKenzie, a technical specialist in the tracked combat vehicles software modernization program at General Dynamics Land Systems.

Verett Mims was one of the first recipients of this award.  In February 2018, she received the Rodney Adkins Legacy Award from Boeing Global Services CEO, Ted Colbert, and Adkins himself. The award recognized Mims’ contributions.

The following year, the award went to Paul F. McKenzie, a technical specialist in the tracked combat vehicles software program at General Dynamics Land Systems.  McKenzie has made significant contributions to AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and General Dynamics Amphibious Systems throughout his career.

Huntley B. Myrie, vice president for strategy and commercial business programs at Spirit AeroSystems Inc., received the Rodney C. Adkins Legacy Award for Business Transformation during the Historically Black College and University Engineering Deans Recognition Event at the 2023 BEYA STEM Conference.

Huntley has led businesses to develop products and services for commercial and military customers. His philanthropic work is an inspiration for many people to thrive in their careers.