Business Notes

Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises

The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation's leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women, today named 15 U.S. companies as America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises.

"These corporations have demonstrated their commitment to women business owners by creating programs that substantially increased procurement opportunities for businesses owned and operated by women," said Susan Phillips Bari, president of WBENC. "These corporations are dedicated to fostering an environment that makes effective supplier diversity a reality. They understand it must begin with CEO involvement, one of the key attributes we sought for America's Top Corporations for WBEs."

The top companies were:

1. Abbott Laboratories
2. American Airlines
3. AT&T
4. Bell Atlantic
5. Bristol-Myers Squibb
6. The Chase Manhattan Bank
7. GTE
8. JC Penney
9. SBC Communications
10. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
11. Texaco
12. TXU
13. United Parcel Service
14. U.S. West
15. Xerox

For more information about WBENC, visit the organization's Website.

Working Women Relying on Internet

Working women are using the Internet in greater numbers to save time to learn about career advancement.

America Online with The Business Women's Network recently unveiled a new study that reveals:

• Working women use the Internet more than 14 hours per week, and more than half log on at least once a day. Echoing the AOL/Roper Starch Cyberstudy results of 1998, 72 percent of working women currently online, given a choice, would prefer to have a computer with Internet access at their desk rather than a telephone.



• 84 percent of working women online said that using the Internet saves them time in every aspect of their lives. In fact, when it comes to e-commerce, 96 percent have researched products online and 64% have made purchases online.



• More than half of working women currently online use the Internet for work purposes. Two-thirds have used the Internet to learn about careers and career advancement, and almost half of working women online have used it to find a job.

For the second year in a row, Carly Fiorina tops Fortune's ranking of the "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business." Fiorina, who earned the No. 1 spot on Fortune's inaugural ranking last year for leading Lucent Technologies' core division, made history this year by becoming CEO of Hewlett-Packard & the first female CEO of one of America's 20 largest corporations.

Heidi Miller, CFO of Citigroup, is No. 2 on Fortune's list; followed by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Internet analyst Mary Meeker at No. 3.

In this year's listing, one third of the women are newcomers to the list & half of them in tech-related jobs, showing the Internet's virtually limitless capacity for creating power, opportunity, and wealth.

Here is a list of the top 10 women on that list:

1. Carly Fiorina & CEO, President of Hewlett-Packard
2. Heidi Miller & CFO of Citigroup
3. Mary Meeker & Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
4. Shelly Lazarus & Chairman, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather
5. Meg Whitman & CEO, President of eBay
6. Debby Hopkins & SVP, CFO of Boeing
7. Marjorie Scardino & CEO of Pearson
8. Martha Stewart & Chairman, CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
9. Nancy Peretsman & EVP, Managing Director of Allen & Co.
10. Pat Russo & EVP Strategy, Bus. Dev. & Corp. Operations of Lucent
Technologies

For more on the annual list, visit Fortune's Website.

Women are more financially independent and in control of financial matters such as obtaining a loan, homeownership and making retirement arrangements than they were 25 years ago, according to a new study.

The Fannie Mae Foundation's "Women and Finances" study shows that women have made major strides in personal knowledge, the handling of financial matters, and in how they are currently being treated when dealing with financial matters outside the home.

According to the study, in the financial world women no longer face discrimination when it comes to loans, mortgages, and credit cards. Today, 33 percent of women feel there is financial discrimination against women compared to 56 percent in the 1974 Virginia Slims survey.

"Understanding the importance of personal finances is critical to women's success, yet our research has shown that for many women we have a long way to go" said Stacey Davis Steed, president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Treasurers in more than a 12 U.S. states have started to host financial seminars to help women create and maintain their nesteggs.

Patterned after a seminar held last year by the Oregon state treasurer, the Everywoman's Money Conference offers top national and regional speakers who tackle the special issues women face. The Conference is part of an ongoing effort for the financial empowerment of women called Project Green Purse. It is funded by the U.S. Labor Department and a range of corporate and non-profit sponsors.

Women may attend the Conference in free of charge. The current schedule includes the following locations and dates:

• Delaware - November 13, 1999
• Maine - November 15, 1999
• Nebraska - January 2000
• Arizona - April 8, 2000
• Oregon - May 1, 2000
• Indiana - May 2000
• Mississippi - May 2000
• New York - May 2000
• West Virginia - Spring 2000

For more about the Oregon conference, visit the state treasurer's Website.

For more information on Project Green Purse, call 503-581-2785 or visit the organization's Website.

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