Catalyst names Georgia-Pacific Corporation and Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP winners of Catalyst Award for Outstanding Initiatives to Advance Women Free

Catalyst names Georgia-Pacific Corporation and Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP winners of Catalyst Award for Outstanding Initiatives to Advance Women

Keywords: Women, Career development

Catalyst has today announced that it has named Georgia-Pacific Corporation and Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP recipients of the 2005 Catalyst Award. Catalyst annually honors strategic business initiatives that result in the recruitment, development, and advancement of women.

“Each year, Catalyst celebrates outstanding initiatives of forward-looking companies and firms that expand opportunities for women in the workplace,” said Catalyst President Ilene H. Lang. “This year’s Award winners provide the business community with superb examples which demonstrate that building more inclusive work environments is good for both women and business.”

Georgia-Pacific’s initiative, “Bridging Cultures, Leveraging Differences”, was implemented following a major acquisition that evolved the corporation’s business plan into a more consumer and customer-focused strategy. The acquisition launched a rigorous plan designed to bridge the knowledge and talents of a diverse workforce and increase the representation of women in the pipeline and at senior levels. Through a set of four distinct mechanisms – communicating a solid business case for diversity; creating the diversity-of thought concept; establishing a network of individuals and teams that support the initiative; and designing a set of accountability mechanisms that ensure all employees receive the developmental and promotional opportunities they deserve – Georgia-Pacific has increased the number of women at the Executive Vice President level from 9 percent to 29 percent. Additionally, representation of women at the President/Vice President level increased from 11 percent to 17 percent, and at the Senior Director/Director/Controller level from 22 percent to 30 percent.

Sidley Austin Brown & Wood’s “Strategies for Success: An Ongoing Commitment to Diversity” is part of a sustained effort to create an inclusive environment that recruits, develops, advances, and retains women at the firm. Sidley’s initiative, supported by a strong commitment from senior leadership, was designed to bring diverse talent into the firm and promote women to partnership and positions of authority. Through innovative programs and policies – including a formal accountability mechanism in which Sidley partners are required to annually account for their personal efforts to improve the diversity of the firm – Sidley has increased its women lawyers promoted to partnership to 43 percent in 2004, up from 22 percent in 2002. In 2004, almost 18 percent of the total partnership was comprised of women, and one third of the firm’s women partners currently hold positions as firm-wide or office committee chairs or co-chairs.

The Award-winning companies presented an in-depth discussion of their initiatives at Catalyst’s full-day conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York City on March 24, 2005. Later that evening, Anne M. Mulcahy, Chairman &CEO of Xerox Corporation, chaired the 30th Annual Catalyst Awards Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, which honored this year’s Award winners. The Dinner attracted more than 175 companies and more than 50 Fortune 500 CEOs.

About the Catalyst Award

Since 1987, Catalyst has annually honored outstanding initiatives and efforts of companies and firms that result in women’s career development and advancement. Catalyst accepts applications from private and public companies and professional services firms. Each initiative is evaluated against the following criteria: measurable results, business rationale, senior-level leadership,accountability, communication of initiative, ability to replicate and sustain the initiative, and originality. Initiatives need not focus exclusively on women, but results must demonstrate that the initiative supports women’s advancement, including that of women of color. Some previous winners of the Award are shown in Table I.

For more information about Catalyst and the Catalyst Award application process, please visit www.catalystwomen.org