BLACK ENTERPRISE Announces The 40 Best Companies For Diversity

Special Report Reveals Organizations Successfully Embracing Corporate Inclusion Across Four Key Areas: Board of Directors, Employee Base, Senior Management and Supplier Diversity

NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — BLACK ENTERPRISE has released its listing of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity  as featured in the publication’s December 2014/January 2015 issue. The companies singled out for distinction demonstrated a significant commitment to diversity in four key areas: board of directors, employee base, senior management and supplier diversity.

In 2005, BLACK ENTERPRISE began publishing its list of the “Best Companies for Diversity,” identifying those corporations that proved to be the best of the best in the developing a culture and executing policies that promoted of inclusion for African Americans within their workforce, senior management ranks, corporate boards and supplier pools. This year the editors placed special emphasis on the impact of millennials on future corporate diversity initiatives and share this generation’s views with its readers.

In compiling this year’s list, the BLACK ENTERPRISE research team found hundreds of companies that refused to take the survey. Some companies did not participate, stating that did not have adequate time to provide diversity figures. Others admitted that their organizations’ numbers simply did not measure up.

Of the 40 best, AT&T, Con Edison, Comcast, FedEx and MGM International demonstrated significant strengths in three of the four areas surveyed.

The full list of the 2014 Black Enterprise 40 Best Companies for Diversity is at www.blackenterprise.com/lists/40-best-companies-diversity/.

To select our 2014 companies, BLACK ENTERPRISE sent surveys to the nation’s top 1,000 publicly traded companies as well as to the 100 leading global companies with strong U.S. operations. The questionnaire focused on activities related to the participation of African Americans and members of other ethnic minority groups as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. A heavier weighting was applied to the senior management and supplier diversity areas. The final scores, along with the results of reporting and research conducted by the editorial staff, were used to determine the 40 Best Companies for Diversity.

The 40 Best Companies for Diversity will be honored on Tuesday January 13th, 2015 during a special Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project/Black Enterprise luncheon.

The complete report, including methodology and selection criteria, is available in the December/January issue of black enterprise magazine.

BLACK ENTERPRISE, your ultimate source for wealth creation, is the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers.

Every month, BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine provides four million readers with information on entrepreneurship, careers, and financial management. As multimedia company, BLACK ENTERPRISE produces television programming, business and lifestyle events, Web content and digital media. BLACK ENTERPRISE is the definitive source of information for and about African American business markets and leaders, and the authority on black business news and trends.