---News from the top---
Jerry Levin, Chief Executive Officer of AOL Time Warner, announced a senior management succession plan for the Company and said AOL Time Warner will begin to implement a six-month transition to a new leadership team. The plan, which Levin proposed to the Board of Directors and Chairman Steve Case endorsed, grew out of ongoing discussions with the Board over the past year on succession planning. As part of this plan, Levin announced that he has decided to retire at the time of the Company's annual meeting in May 2002. Under this succession plan, which calls for a new streamlined management structure effective at the Annual Meeting, Richard Parsons, Co-Chief Operating Officer, will become Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and Robert Pittman, now Co-Chief Operating Officer with Parsons, will become the sole Chief Operating Officer. Steve Case will continue to have an active role as Chairman, working closely with the top management team to help AOL Time Warner achieve its unique potential. As Co-Chief Operating Officer of AOL Time Warner, Parsons oversees the company's content businesses-Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Warner Music Group and Time Warner Trade Publishing-as well as two key corporate functions: Legal and People Development. He is a member of the AOL Time Warner Board of Directors. Parsons, an African American, became President of Time Warner Inc. in February 1995, and was a member of the Time Warner Board of Directors since January 1991. Before joining Time Warner, Parsons was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dime Bancorp, Inc., one of the largest thrift institutions in the United States. Previously, he was the managing partner of the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. Prior to that, he held various positions in state and federal service, as counsel for Nelson Rockefeller and as a senior White House aide under President Gerald Ford. Parsons received his undergraduate education at the University of Hawaii and his legal training at Union University's Albany Law School.

---African American leads national American Postal Workers Union---AFL-CIO William Burrus has been installed as the new National President of the 380,000-member American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO (Washington, D.C.). Through its multiple crafts, APWU represents the clerk, maintenance, and motor vehicle employees, who work in over 30,000 facilities of the United States Postal Service. APWU is also the bargaining agent for employees in several private transportation and mail companies. Burrus replaces the venerable Moe Biller, who has retired after 65 years in the labor movement including the past 21 years as National President of the APWU. His term will run for three years. Burrus becomes the first African-American in 220 years of American labor history to be democratically elected to the position of president by the membership of a national union. Since November 1980, Mr. Burrus has served as APWU Executive Vice President, the union's second highest elected office. As a testament to his popular support among rank-and-file members---he was re-elected on four occasions without opposition. He served as President of the Cleveland, Ohio APWU from 1974 until being elected to national office as Executive Vice President.

---Women on America's corporate boards---
In growing numbers, women are pushing open the doors to America's corporate board rooms and taking a seat at the table of the largest companies in the world. In the 2001 Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 1000, Catalyst found that women now hold 12.4% of all board seats in the F500, up from 11.2% in 1999 and 10.9% of all board seats in the F1000, up from 10% in 1999. In the first year of the Catalyst census, 155 of the F500 companies had no women board directors. In Catalyst's ninth year of counting, only 67 of the F500 still have no women. Women of color comprise about 2% of the F1000 boards seats and 18.1 % of the board seats held by all women. They hold 178 of the 8,941 seats among the 839 companies for which Catalyst could confirm race and ethnicity. Of the 178 seats, 131 seats are held by African American women, 30 seats are held by Hispanic women, 15 seats are held by Asian American women and two seats are classified as "other." For additional information on this survey, call 212-514-7600.

---Reebok Announces 2002 Human Rights Award---
The Reebok Human Rights Award Program announced that for the first time in its 13-year history, the annual Award will be presented to four women. The 2002 winners include: (1) Dita Sari of Indonesia, the founder of the first independent labor union in Indonesia; (2) Kavwumbu Hakachima of Zambia , an advocate for abused children in Zambia; (3) Babita Maili Lama of Nepal, a rescuer of young girls enslaved as prostitutes in India; and (4) Malika Asha Sanders of Selma, Alabama , an activist at the forefront of a new generation of civil rights leadership in the United States. The winners will be honored as champions of human rights as part of the 2002 Cultural Olympiad of the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games. The awards will be presented at a ceremony during the Olympic Arts Festival on February 7, 2002 at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

---Honoring United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan---
The Fulbright Association awarded the 2001 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding to Kofi Annan, Secretary- General of the United Nations. Secretary-General Annan was selected by an international committee to receive the 2001 Fulbright Prize for his work in conflict resolution and his promotion of international cooperation and peace. Secretary-General Annan, who along with the United Nations was recently awarded the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, said, "I am deeply honored to receive the 2001 Fulbright Prize for International Understanding."

---Conference of Mayors Awards AIDS Prevention Grants---
The U.S. Conference of Mayors awarded more than $800,000 in HIV/AIDS prevention grants to 13 community-based groups across the country. Nine of these organizations will conduct HIV prevention programs for gay/bisexual men of color, variously targeting African American, Hispanic, and Asian men. The other four organizations will conduct HIV prevention programs for Native Americans. All of the funded programs will begin in early 2002.

---Loans to Minority-Owned Small Businesses in Los Angeles- As a sign of its commitment to the minority-owned small business community in Los Angeles, CIT announced that in 2001 its Small Business Lending Corporation provided a record number of SBA loans in the Los Angeles area, including one for $450,000 to a Los Angeles area African-American female physician. The $450,000 SBA loan financed the purchase of a medical practice and medical office building, and further emphasizes CIT's ongoing commitment to help develop a strong core of minority businesses in Los Angeles. CIT Small Business Lending Corporation, a subsidiary of Tyco Capital, offers Small Business Administration loans, franchise financing, construction lending and equipment financing through a network of field representatives. The Tyco Capital family of companies are subsidiaries of Tyco International Ltd. Tyco Capital is a leading, global source of financing and leasing capital and advisor for companies in more than 30 industries.

---Job Opportunity of the Week---
City Year Boston: Development Director
Seeking an experienced Development Director to lead the effort to raise the funds necessary to operate a $44.5 million program on a renewable and sustainable basis, working closely with the Executive Director and the City Year Boston Board. Requirements include a Bachelor's, a minimum of 6-8 years experience in development and marketing, demonstrated ability to communicate well in verbal and written formats, thorough understanding of all components of building and managing a diversified funding base,
Contact Information: Job Code RA/DD/UF
R.J. Awkward, The Human Resources Group
15 Harvest Moon Drive, Suite 100, Natick, MA 01760
Send email to: bedgehill@mediaone.net.

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