New Orleans, La. - Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) CEO J. Wayne Leonard has been named as a recipient of Diversity Best Practices' CEO Leadership Award for his ongoing commitment to creating an environment of diversity and inclusion for Entergy’s employees, customers and suppliers.
 

Leonard is one of 10 CEO award winners that will be honored at the 2004 Diversity and Women Leadership Summit and Gala, Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C. The Diversity Best Practices 2004 Leadership awards showcase the nation's progressive business leaders for embracing diversity in markets, workforces and communities. Leonard is being recognized for creating a corporate culture that embraces and drives diversity success throughout the company.
 

“When I took the position of CEO, I did so only after the Board agreed that a company should have a soul and conscience that support its values. We agreed our responsibilities included assisting the poor, protecting the environment and embracing diversity,” said Leonard.
 

Criteria for this distinguished award include a commitment to diversity through corporate initiatives, special recognition of the community, philanthropic and supplier diversity, chairing and supporting diversity councils and ensuring top management support. Some recent highlights of Entergy’s diversity initiatives include:

• An award-winning Supplier Diversity program, in which Entergy has spent over $1.7 billion with women and minority-owned firms in the last 12 years.

• A strong corporate philanthropy initiative, contributing more than $9 billion in grants along with a coordinated company-wide volunteer program to promote growth and vitality in the diverse communities that Entergy serves.

• Company-wide diversity training seminars specific to Entergy’s culture and needs.

• An increase in workforce minority representation over the past two years.

• The establishment of more than 20 diversity and inclusion councils comprised of employees from each business unit to address diversity issues at each level of the company.

"Your efforts to make diversity a business imperative as much as a social one are not just worthy of recognition, they are an extraordinary example for other companies to follow," said Edie Fraser, president and founder of Diversity Best Practices and the Business Women’s Network. "J. Wayne Leonard and the other CEOs selected live diversity. They are taking advantage of every opportunity to create a new business culture that is progressive, inclusive and most importantly, lucrative as diversity has a bottom line. We commend Wayne."
 

Entergy values the diversity of people, ideas and cultures. In support of that focus, the company aims to create an environment of inclusion for employees, customers and suppliers where their talents and experiences are valued and leveraged to provide high standards of performance.
 

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production, retail distribution operations, energy marketing and trading, and gas transportation. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.6 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of over $9 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.
 

Diversity Best Practices (DBP) (www.diversitybestpractices.com) and The Business Women's Network (BWN) (www.bwni.com) are Washington, D.C.-based organizations providing resources, publications and benchmarking services for diversity and women in business. DBP is a leading resource service that assists leaders and professionals in the development of fully-integrated diversity programs. BWN is an information network for professional women around the globe, from first-time entrepreneurs to board members of Fortune 500 companies. Both are subsidiaries of iVillage Inc., a leading women’s media company and the number one women’s community online. The iVillage Network is the 20th most visited Web site in the U.S. with more than 17 million unique monthly visitors (comScore Media Metrix, May 2004).

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Entergy's online address is www.entergy.com.