Business Roundtable Program Manager Receives Award of Excellence for Helping Rehabilitate Gulf Coast.

Engineering News-Record Honors Tim Horst, Gulf Coast Workforce Development Initiative

WASHINGTON -- Tim Horst, program manager of Business Roundtable's Gulf Coast Workforce Development Initiative (GCWDI) and "I'm GREAT" campaign, and president of Becon Construction Company, Inc. (a subsidiary of Bechtel Corporation), was honored by Engineering News-Record (ENR) with an Award of Excellence for being one of 25 top newsmakers in 2007.

"We are very proud of Tim's leadership and the contributions of the many public and private partners who work tirelessly to ensure the program's success," said Riley Bechtel, chairman and CEO of Bechtel Group, Inc. "Most importantly, we congratulate the thousands of men and women who have completed the training and are now rebuilding the Gulf Coast."

Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies, conceived and developed this initiative to respond to the devastating storms that ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast in late 2005. GCWDI recruits students through the "Get Rewarded for Education and Advancement Training" - or "I'm GREAT" - campaign. Political leaders in the region have lauded the program, which encourages and facilitates the participation of Gulf Coast residents in the construction industry.

"We all owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Horst for his dedication to this initiative. Nearly two years into our ambitious program, we are on schedule to achieve our goal of recruiting and training 20,000 new construction workers in the Gulf Coast region by the end of 2009," said John Castellani, president of Business Roundtable. "As the initiative's leader, Mr. Horst has driven its success. We're thrilled to see him acknowledged for his unwavering commitment to improving the Gulf Coast."

To date, members of Business Roundtable have committed $5 million in funding to coordinate training and assist in recruitment efforts for this program.

The Get Rewarded for Education and Advancement Training, or GREAT campaign (www.imgreat.org), is sponsored by the Gulf Coast Workforce Development Initiative, a partnership of federal, state and local government agencies, businesses, community organizations and construction trade groups and associations, working together to recruit and train up to 20,000 skilled construction craft workers for the Gulf Coast region by the end of 2009. The GREAT campaign is primarily funded by members of Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies.

Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Collectively, they returned $114 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2006.