WASHINGTON /diversitybusiness.com/ In keeping with its leadership role in advancing opportunities for women-owned businesses to market their products and services to corporations, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) today announced its third annual listing of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises.

The 2001 list recognizes the "Elite Eight" corporations that not only have developed programs that offer equal access for women-owned suppliers, but also have attained world-class quality in their supplier diversity programs that include women's business enterprises. Six out of eight were recognized as America's Top Companies for Multicultural Business Opportunities by Div2000.com:

• AT&T *
• Avis Rent A Car System, Inc., a Cendant owned company
• Bank of America *
• JP Morgan Chase and Co. *
• Office Depot *
• SBC Communications *
• TXU
• United Parcel Service *

* America's Top Companies for Multicultural Business Opportunities

Office Depot is the only newcomer to the list, although the 2000 list included The Chase Manhattan Bank, which this year merged with J.P. Morgan to become JP Morgan Chase and Co.

"These companies demonstrate that it is both possible and profitable for U.S. companies to create world-class programs that ensure diversity among their vendors and suppliers," said Susan Phillips Bari, President of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. "By choosing diversity among the firms with whom they do business, and by delivering outstanding and consistent supplier diversity programs for WBEs, they are true leaders in both economic and civic terms."

CEOs and other representatives of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises will be honored at a special ceremony at The White House attended by government officials such as the event's host, Hector V. Barreto, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Reflecting the strength of this sector, women's business enterprises are expanding in size faster than the overall economy and becoming an increasingly significant presence in all industries. According to a survey conducted by WBENC and released in November 2001, corporate spending with women's business enterprises is also increasing at a faster rate than spending with suppliers overall.

Since its founding in 1997, WBENC has fostered diversity in the world of commerce by creating programs to help expand opportunities and eliminate barriers in the marketplace for women's business enterprises. These programs include:

• Certification of women business owners through WBENC's women's business affiliates; the most widely accepted third-party certification system of woman-owned businesses in America.
• Women in Business: Sharing the Vision, the largest annual conference and trade fair for women business owners in the nation.
• Comprehensive research projects that benchmark "best practices" among supplier diversity programs.

These "best practices" guide corporations in building quality supplier diversity programs and serve as the criteria by which the Elite Eight 2001 list of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises was chosen. The five best practices are:

• Leadership from the CEO;
• Outreach to women's business enterprises;
• Training of supplier diversity personnel
• Policy structures that provide access to the corporation by women's business enterprises, and
• Dissemination of information on program results.

"When these best practices have been fully incorporated into the goals and objectives of the company as a whole -- not just of an isolated program within the corporate bureaucracy -- they will provide new levels of value to the corporation and its shareholders," Bari said.

As the leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women, WBENC partners with corporate diversity executives and women's business organizations throughout the United States. WBENC provides these key elements to a successful certification program:

• Access to a national standard of certification.
• Information on certified businesses to purchasing managers through an Internet database - WBENCLink.
• Training programs and manuals covering certification review procedures.
• Management training programs for organizational partners.
• Creation and dissemination of topical seminars and workshops for women business owners.