CNBC and the Wall Street Journal Announce the Winners of Their First Annual Executive Leadership Awards.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. -- Fourth bullet of release should read: "Overall Executive Leadership" - A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble (sted "Overall Executive Leadership" - A.G. Lafley, Proctor & Gamble).

The corrected release reads:

CNBC AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS OF THEIR FIRST ANNUAL EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP AWARDS

eBay's Meg Whitman, American Express' Kenneth Chenault, Apple's Steve Jobs and P & G's A.G. Lafley All Honored

CNBC, the recognized leader in global business news, and The Wall Street Journal, the world's leading business publication, announced the winners of the CNBC/Wall Street Journal Executive Leadership Awards last night during a gala awards ceremony at New York City's Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Hosted by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and John Fugelsang, the inaugural event honored four of the country's most esteemed, top-level business leaders in the following categories:

--"Business Leader of the Future" - Meg Whitman, eBay

--"Leader in Business Practices" - Kenneth Chenault, American Express 

--"Leader in Innovation" - Steve Jobs, Apple

--"Overall Executive Leadership" - A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble

The CNBC/Wall Street Journal Executive Leadership Award marks the first time these noted business-news organizations have teamed together to recognize the accomplishments of business leaders. Highlights of last night's ceremony can be seen this morning on "Wake Up Call" (M-F, 5-7 a.m. ET) and "Squawk Box" (M-F, 7 - 10 a.m. ET).

The finalists for the Executive Leadership Awards were chosen by top-ranked companies in Harris Interactive's reputation survey, which narrowed the field to 16 business executives. Upon reviewing the nominations, a judging panel that included Louis Gerstner, retired IBM chairman and CEO; Patrick Harker, Dean of The Wharton School; Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of The Harris Poll; Sheila Wellington, Professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and former President of Catalyst; and Mike Krzyzewski, Men's basketball coach, Duke University, selected the four winners.

"CNBC and The Wall Street Journal have always been committed to covering a wide variety of individuals, companies and financial endeavors," said Pamela Thomas-Graham, President and CEO, CNBC. "We are delighted to establish this forum, which honors those determined to be the best and the brightest in business leadership by their peers."

"In today's complex business and regulatory environments, the responsibilities and duties of business executives have become enormously challenging," said Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Journal. "Our goal with these new awards was to identify those who are extraordinarily successful at meeting this challenge and to explore the reasons for their success."

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About CNBC

CNBC is the recognized global leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 200 million homes worldwide, including more than 86 million households in the United States and Canada. The network's Business Day programming (weekdays from 5:00 a.m.- 7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and also includes reports from CNBC news bureaus worldwide. Additionally, CNBC viewers can manage their individual investment portfolios and gain additional in-depth information from on-air reports by accessing www.cnbc.com. CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia Pacific are services of NBC Universal and Dow Jones & Company. Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://nbcumv.com/cnbc/.

About The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com), is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of 2.1 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 29 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, the Journal seeks to help its readers succeed by providing essential and relevant information, presented fairly and accurately, from a dependable and trusted source. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has nearly 700 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,800 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with total circulation of more than 2.6 million, include The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. In 2004, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the fifth consecutive year.