Ron Brown Award Winners Announced at White House Ceremony November 29, 2006

WASHINGTON, November 29, 2006 – In recognition of outstanding achievement in employee and community relations, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez presented the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership to Sallie Mae and Weyerhaeuser Company today.

The Ron Brown Award is sponsored and managed by The Conference Board, a global research and business membership organization. President Bill Clinton established this Presidential Award in honor of the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who firmly believed that businesses do well by doing good.

“Like Secretary Brown and other of my predecessors in office who traveled across this country and throughout the world, everywhere I go I see U.S. companies that are doing well and doing good,” Gutierrez said. “They care about corporate success. They also care about people. They are invested in their employees, their neighborhoods and their communities. They see this investment as both a privilege and a responsibility that they accept and honor. Today we’re delighted to celebrate and recognize two organizations for outstanding leadership in community and employee relations.”

Winners were selected by a blue-ribbon panel of independent judges. Sallie Mae, based in Reston, Va., is being honored for three college-access programs developed by its charitable arm, The Sallie Mae Fund: Latino College Access Campaign, Project Access: DC and The Sallie Mae Fund Scholarship Programs. Weyerhaeuser, based in Federal Way, Wash., is being recognized for its Employer’s Guide to Assisting Employees in a Disaster which documents innovative strategies, best practices and tactics for assisting employees in a major disaster.

 

Media Contact: Tom Joyce, Sallie Mae: (703) 984-5610, tom. joyce[at]slma.com

For more than 33 years, Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading provider of education financing and savings plans, has helped millions of Americans achieve their dream of higher education. The company believes that a college degree should be within the reach of every American, regardless of their background or financial status. This year, Sallie Mae is being honored for three college-access initiatives sponsored by its charitable arm, The Sallie Mae Fund.

The Latino College Access Campaign is a multi-faceted approach to reverse lagging Latino higher education and enrollment rates by providing Latino families and students the information they need about financial aid in their preferred language. The Campaign’s signature component is the “Paying for College” Bus Tour which runs coast-to-coast and brings critical information for planning and paying for college directly to Latinos in their own communities.

Project Access: DC is a hometown project undertaken by The Sallie Mae Fund in large part through a $28-million grant to establish Building Hope, a charter school facilities fund in the Washington metropolitan area. Public charter schools have become a popular alternative to Washington, D.C.’s traditional public schools, but they often face difficulties getting started. Building Hope provides charter schools with financial support, as well as professional services like site selection and school design. Other campaign initiatives include Kids2College, an early college awareness program and the D.C. College Access Program, which helps students in D.C. Public Schools apply for and pay for higher education.

The Sallie Mae Fund Scholarship Programs increase access to higher education in a practical way by bridging the financial gap for low-income and minority students. Some of The Fund’s scholarship programs include: the First in My Family scholarship program for Hispanic-American students who are the first in their family to attend college, the American Dream scholarship for African-American students and the Unmet Need scholarship program for families with a combined income of less than $30,000 a year.

“Far too many young adults assume that the dream of college is beyond their reach,” said Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, chief executive officer, Sallie Mae. “Our focus is closing the financial gap, closing the information gap about financial aid and addressing academic preparation where possible so that students of all backgrounds have a chance to succeed in college.”

 

Sallie Mae is the nation’s leading provider of saving- and paying-for-college programs. The company manages $137 billion in education loans and serves nearly 10 million student and parent customers. Through its Upromise affiliates, the company also manages more than $11 billion in 529 college-savings plans and assists more than 7 million members with automatic savings through rebates on everyday purchases. Sallie Mae and its subsidiaries offer debt management services, as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including higher education institutions, student loan guarantors, and state and federal agencies.

 

Media Contact: Frank Mendizabal, Weyerhaeuser: (253)924-3357, frank.mendizabal[at]weyerhaeuser.com

In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Weyerhaeuser’s comprehensive disaster relief efforts demonstrated the company’s citizenship commitment to make a difference in the communities where its employees live and work. Weyerhaeuser is being honored for its guide, Rebuilding a Community: An Employer’s Guide to Assisting Employees in a Disaster. The guide documents the company’s employer disaster relief experience in an effort to help other companies support their own employees in crisis situations.

“We immediately understood that these disasters, which struck at the heart of our southern operations, demanded extraordinary action to support our employees and their communities,” said Steve Rogel, Weyerhaeuser chairman, president and CEO.

Within days of Hurricane Katrina, Weyerhaeuser had a project manager on the ground in coastal Mississippi who began helping impacted employees and retirees calculate their losses and negotiate insurance claims. The company set up an employee-to-employee assistance fund, augmented by a $100,000 corporate match as well as an adopt-a-family program to link employee teams and company facilities to Weyerhaeuser families who had experienced significant loss. The company’s most significant contribution to the relief effort was through its loaned employee program, which covered costs for employees who wished to participate in rebuilding projects. Weyerhaeuser covered its employees’ salaries, costs of travel, and up to 60 days of living and meal expenses. The company also covered travel and living expenses for retirees and spouses willing to volunteer.

Nearly 300 Weyerhaeuser employees and retirees have volunteered more than 42,000 hours and rebuilt 50 homes. Weyerhaeuser’s employee-to-employee fund has distributed more than $144,000 and, in all, 128 families are being assisted.

Weyerhaeuser’s guide, which can be found at www.weyerhaeuser.com/katrina, documents innovative strategies as well as what the company found to be the best practices and tactics for helping employees in a crisis.

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world's largest integrated forest products companies, was incorporated in 1900. In 2005, sales were $22.6 billion. It has offices or operations in 18 countries, with customers worldwide. Weyerhaeuser is principally engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development and related activities. Additional information about Weyerhaeuser's businesses, products and practices is available at http://www.weyerhaeuser.com.

 

 

 

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