BellSouth builds on 2003 Crystal Award honor

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS) is honored to be selected as the South Regions Minority Business Council's (SRMBC) 2004 Corporation of the Year for its support of minority suppliers in Alabama, Mississippi's Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle. This is the second consecutive year the SRMBC has recognized BellSouth for supplier diversity. BellSouth was awarded the SRMBC's Crystal Award in 2003.
     The SRMBC also recognized BellSouth's outstanding supplier diversity leaders. Chris Tsai, executive director for BellSouth's supply chain services, was named the SRMBC Executive of the Year for the second consecutive year for his support of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) programs. Angela Williams was named Advocate of the Year for fostering MBE relationships at BellSouth and also received the Chairman's Award for outstanding service to the SRMBC.
     "BellSouth is proud to have the South Regions Minority Business Council and its minority business enterprises recognize the company's dedication and commitment to minority businesses," noted Tom Hamby, president of BellSouth's Alabama operations. "In the past four years, BellSouth has spent more than $2 billion with diverse suppliers and we look forward to continuing to work closely with the SRMBC on issues related to promoting diversity and strengthening relationships with minority suppliers."
     BellSouth has an active supplier diversity program and works constantly to expand participation by minority-, woman-, and disabled veteran-owned firms. Earlier this year, BellSouth announced that it met -- and exceeded -- the 1999 SUPERCOMM Supplier Diversity Challenge. The SUPERCOMM Challenge set a goal for the telecommunications industry to increase its business with diversity suppliers to at least 10 percent of total procurement by 2003.
     The company is consistently recognized in its region as a champion of minority business development. BellSouth was recently named the Florida Regional Minority Business Council's Corporation of the Year. The Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council has given BellSouth its prestigious Crystal Award twice in the last three years and also honored key leaders in the procurement organization. 
     Nationally, BellSouth has been named for the past two years to DiversityBusiness.com's Div 50 listing of top corporations for multicultural business opportunities. For five consecutive years, BellSouth has ranked first on the NAACP's telecommunications industry report card, with supplier diversity performance being an increasingly significant differentiating factor.
     The SRMBC is a non profit corporation dedicated to promoting business development opportunities for minority owned businesses. SRMBC is an affiliate member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, a network of more than 3,500 corporations and 15,000 certified minority businesses. For more information on the SRMBC, visit http://www.srmbc.org .
     About BellSouth Corporation
     BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and a parent company of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless voice and data provider.
     Backed by award winning customer service, BellSouth offers the most comprehensive and innovative package of voice and data services available in the market. Through BellSouth Answers(R), residential and small business customers can bundle their local and long distance service with dial up and high speed DSL Internet access, satellite television and Cingular(R) Wireless service. For businesses, BellSouth provides secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also offers online and directory advertising through BellSouth(R) RealPages.com(R) and The Real Yellow Pages(R).

Source: PRNewswire