Founder and President of Brilliant Ideas, LLC

Gloria Johnson Goins is vice president, Business Diversity Outreach for Prudential Financial.  Gloria is responsible for collaborating with key internal and external partners to build strategic relationships aimed at strengthening Prudential’s brand and enhancing its recruiting and marketing efforts in diverse market segments. Gloria also provides internal consulting support on broad diversity matters.

Prior to joining Prudential, Gloria was the Founder and President of Brilliant Ideas, LLC, a marketing and consulting company that specialized in reaching growth and emerging markets. Her clients included The Home Depot, Hyundai, the City of Montgomery, AL and the NFL Super Bowl Gospel Concert.

Gloria has served as the Chief Diversity Officer for The Home Depot, overseeing all aspects of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion program for more than 350,000 associates across the world. In that role, which Gloria held for six years, she was responsible for developing and implementing global strategy and initiatives that are designed to enable The Home Depot to grow market share, attract and retain the best talent, develop strategic community alliances and to become the retailer of choice

Prior to joining The Home Depot, Gloria served as the vice president of Diversity of Cingular Wireless, which at the time was the nation’s largest wireless communications company with over 70,000 employees throughout the United States. Under her leadership, Cingular’s diversity organization received national recognition from Diversity Best Practices, Next Step Magazine, and the Disability Rights Advocates.

Prior to Cingular, she spent more than eight years as a legal professional with BellSouth. She joined BellSouth Telecommunications in 1992, managing legal matters in a variety of practice areas, including employment and labor law, general litigation as well as state and federal regulatory matters.  Gloria later became the General Attorney with BellSouth Cellular Corp., a role that was equivalent to a partner in a law firm. She handled matters involving general and employment litigation, real estate, and federal regulatory compliance. While at BellSouth, she was also an active member of the legal department’s diversity committee with a responsibility for promoting diversity within and outside of BellSouth.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Gloria began her career at a private law firm in Miami where she represented various corporate and governmental clients on complex commercial litigation matters.

She is an honors graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Psychology.  Upon graduating from Stanford, Gloria attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she served as Editor of the Law Review. In May 2000, Gloria received her MBA from Mercer University, where she served as a member of the Dean's Advisory Committee.

In addition to co-authoring an article on the Family and Medical Leave Act, which was published in the October 1996 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal, Gloria is a member of the Florida and Georgia Bars, the National Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.  In addition to her active membership at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, she is also very active in numerous professional and civic organizations that include the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), SER Jobs for Progress, NAACP and United Way of America.

Gloria is married to Prince Leon Goins and they have one daughter, Grace Princess.