Business & Finance

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- LATINA Style Magazine proudly announces the LATINA Style 50 Report for 2008. Now in its 11th year anniversary, this annual evaluation sets the standard for corporate America's sensitivity to Latinas' needs and goals in the workplace, identifying corporations that are providing the best career opportunities for Latinas in the U.S. The LATINA Style 50 Report is the most respected evaluation of corporate America's career advancement opportunities for Latinas. This year, more than 1,000 of the most prominent corporations in the United States were included in the extensive search.

Companies responding to LATINA Style's questionnaire are evaluated based on issues that LATINA Style readers identified as most important to them in the workplace. Among the principal areas of evaluation are: number of Latina executives, mentoring programs, Latina board members, educational opportunities, alternative work policies, dependent/child care support, employee benefits, women's issues, job retraining, affinity groups and Hispanic relations. Evaluations for the 2008 annual report were based on 2007 data.

"Latinas' progress in climbing the corporate ladder has been greatly hampered by the recent economic downturn. As the newest members of the corporate executive ranks, their lack of seniority puts them at great risk in maintaining their status as companies downsize their operations," says Robert E. Bard, president and CEO of LATINA Style Magazine, "However, there is still a number of leading corporations that have been able to maintain and even increase their Latina executive workforce. Now more than ever it is our duty to keep Hispanic women informed about corporate America's best employment practices. We have gone to great lengths to provide a reliable resource for Latinas to evaluate companies and after a year of work and research, we firmly believe that the 2008 LATINA Style 50 truly represents some of the best opportunities corporate America has to offer."
The 2008 Company of the Year is Dallas, Texas based AT&T Inc. AT&T provides the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services, and leads the telecommunications industry with its wireless, high speed Internet access and voice service offerings. AT&T has been included among the LATINA Style 50 since the inception of the list, and was ranked among the Top 12 Companies list of 2007.

"We are pleased to receive the coveted Company of the Year recognition from LATINA Style," says Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T. "Our business is to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work. And we know that the best way to deliver on that mission is to embrace diversity in all of its forms."

An annual awards ceremony honoring the LATINA Style 50 Companies will take place on February 5, 2009 during LATINA Style'''s Diversity Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. For more information regarding the LATINA Style 50, please visit the magazine website at www.latinastyle.com.

2008 LATINA Style 50 Companies

Accenture
Aetna Inc.
Aflac Incorporated
Allstate Insurance Company
American Airlines
American Express
AT&T Inc. -- - Company of the Year
Bank of America
BNSF Railway Company
Citigroup Inc.
Colgate-Palmolive Company
Comcast Cable
Credit Suisse
Darden Restaurants
Fannie Mae
General Mills
General Motors Corporation
HSBC-North America
IBM Corporation
JPMorgan Chase
Kaiser Permanente
Kellogg Company
Kraft Foods, Inc.
Liz Claiborne Inc.
Macy's, Inc.
Marriott International, Inc.
McDonald's USA
Merrill Lynch
MetLife, Inc.
MGM Mirage
Morgan Stanley
New York Life Insurance Company
Northern Trust
PepsiCo., Inc.
Principal Financial Group
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Qwest Communications
Ryder System, Inc.
Southern California Edison
State Farm Mutual Insurance Companies
The Coca-Cola Company
The Procter & Gamble Company
Union Pacific Railroad Company
USAA
Verizon Communications, Inc.
Wachovia Corporation
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
WellPoint, Inc.
Wells Fargo & Company
Xerox Corporation

Honorable Mention Companies

Army & Air Force Exchange Service
Bausch & Lomb
Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
Comerica Bank
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Freddie Mac
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
Sodexo, Inc.
United Technologies Corporation
UnitedHealth Group