Black Business Leaders to Be Honored by the One Hundred Black Men Investors Club; Awards Feature Merrill Lynch's O'Neal, David Dinkins and Others.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2002

African-American business luminaries will be honored at the Hundred Black Men Investors Club's first annual Performance Awards, Tuesday, April 30, at the American Stock Exchange, 86 Trinity Place, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The honorees are Ron Williams, VP, health operations, Aetna; Stanley O'Neal, CEO, Merrill Lynch Inc.; Richmond McCoy, CEO, Urban America; Salvadore Sodano, chairman and CEO, American Stock Exchange, Ernesta Procope, president and CEO, E.G. Bowman Co.; John Procope, chairman, E.G. Bowman Co.; Michael G. Flanigan, VP, J.P. Morgan Chase; former Mayor David. N. Dinkins, of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Paul T. Williams, Esq., partner, Bryan Cave LLP; Paul Dickstein, president and CEO, Healthfirst; and Luther R. Gatling, president emeritus of the One Hundred Black Men and founder of the One Hundred Black Men Investors Club.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is among the special guests who have been invited.

The Performance Awards celebrate the success of outstanding American companies and African-American business owners and corporate executives who have shown courage, kindness and unselfish character to enhance diversity in the face of adversity.

"The event will show our appreciation of individuals who have acted as pathfinders to foster economic wealth and social gains," said Arthur Lee Kindred, chairman of the Hundred Black Men Investors Club. The event also serves as a kickoff to this year's open membership drive.

"I'm looking forward to an evening of guanxi, a Chinese word comprised of two characters: guan and xi, meaning relationship or contacts," said Paul T. Williams, president of the parent group, One Hundred Black Men. "Our organization will continue to provide relationships to make contacts."

The event is sponsored by Aetna, the American Stock Exchange, J.P. Morgan Chase and Healthfirst. For more information, call Gloria Fair, Executive Director, One Hundred Black Men, at 212-777-7070, 105 East 22nd Street, New York NY 10010.

Founded in 2000, the One Hundred Black Men Investors Club, Inc., is a group consisting members from the One Hundred Black Men, Inc., founded in 1963 by highly esteemed business and professional men to provide economic educational scholarships, health and housing programs to enhance the quality of life for all people. Early founders included extraordinary men such as Dr. Kenneth B. Clark, former Mayor David N. Dinkins and J. Bruce Llewellyn.