Office Depot Announces Recipients of Prestigious 2005 ``Businesswomen of the Year'' Award.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Nine Women Honored at Office Depot's Success Strategies for Businesswomen Conference

Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), one of the world's leading resellers of office products, last night honored nine extraordinary women with the Company's prestigious 2005 "Businesswomen of the Year" Award.

The awards were presented during the sold-out opening session of Office Depot's Success Strategies for Businesswomen Conference, taking place this week at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida. Following the presentation of the awards, Dr. Maya Angelou, best-selling author and poet, captivated attendees with an inspirational keynote address.

With more than 1,000 attendees, the conference, now in its fifth year, is recognized as one of the nation's most prominent and significant events offered to female small business owners. Office Depot executives, Patricia Morrison, Chief Information Officer, and Lynn Connelly, Director of Strategic Alliances and Sponsorships, presented the awards.

The nine recipients were nominated by their respective professional women's associations and selected by their peers. This year's award winners were noted as demonstrating exemplary leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and support for women in business.

"Office Depot is proud to partner with world-class women's business organizations, and the women honored exemplify the entrepreneurial success that women can achieve in business," said Chuck Rubin, Executive Vice President, Merchandising/Marketing Officer for Office Depot.

The women, hailing from states across the country including, Colorado, Florida, New York, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, have collective expertise ranging from advertising, design and journalism to multimedia production and engineering.

"Our honorees all share two things in common--passion for what they do everyday; and a dedication to helping women achieve success and business excellence in their respective industries. We congratulate them on their success and thank them for their contributions," noted Rubin.

"Businesswomen of the Year" Award recipients include:

--Patricia Parker, President and CEO of Native American Management Services (NAMS), a company that provides a variety of professional services to federal clients and Native American organizations, is headquartered in McLean, Virginia; nominated by Business Women's Network (BWN).

--Maury Dobbie, President and CEO of MediaTech Productions, which provides award winning multimedia services to such clients as the Discovery Channel, Outdoor Life Network, DirecTV and the DISH Network, is headquartered in Ft. Collins, Colo.; nominated by eWomenNetwork (EWN).

--Deborah Gross, Director of Business Development, Defense Sector for STG, Inc., a certified provider of enterprise and IT infrastructure support services, is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio; nominated by the Executive Women's Golf Association (EWGA).

--Jennifer Pellet, Editor-in-Chief for NAFE Magazine, the publication of the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), and Principal of New York City-based custom publishing firm Inkstone Editorial; nominated by the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE).

--Wendy Lopez, Co-founder and CEO of LOPEZGARCIA GROUP, one of Texas' leading engineering design and environmental planning firms, is headquartered in Dallas; nominated by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

--Earline Lagueruela, President and Founder of S&C Advertising & Public Relations, a full-service national bilingual communications firm, is headquartered in San Antonio; nominated by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).

--Annette Taddeo, President and CEO of LanguageSpeak, a Miami-based comprehensive language company, which offers a broad range of language-related services in over 100 languages; nominated by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

--Orit, President and Founder of The O Group, a 16-person creative strategy and design firm based in New York City; nominated by Women's Leadership Exchange (WLE).

--Beth Bronfman, CEO and Managing Partner, Leibler Bronfman Lubalin Advertising, a full-service 18 year-old advertising agency with annual billings of approximately $40 million, is headquartered in New York City; nominated by the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO).

EDITORS NOTE: To learn more about the winners and Office Depot's Success Strategies for Businesswomen Conference please visit http://mediarelations.officedepot.cc/successstrategies05/

About the Conference

The Office Depot Success Strategies for Businesswomen Conference was created in 2001 to provide women in business with networking opportunities, while offering programs and seminars that help them manage their businesses more successfully.

In addition to honoring female entrepreneurs from national professional women's organizations, top women in business are also presented with Office Depot Visionary Awards.

Keynote presenters at the conference include Barbara Walters, ABC Correspondent and Emmy-Award Winning Co-Host and Co-Executive Producer of "The View," Kathy Ireland, Chief Designer and CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide (KIWW) and Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation.

In addition to Xerox Corporation as the presenting sponsor for the 2005 conference, Platinum sponsors are MassMutual and Hewlett Packard. Supporting sponsors include Acco, Bic, Canon, Energizer, International Paper, JKG Group, Microsoft and Smead.

About Office Depot

With annual sales of more than $13 billion, Office Depot sells more office products to more customers in more countries than any other company. Incorporated in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, Office Depot conducts business in 23 countries and employs 46,000 people worldwide. The Company operates under the Office Depot(R), Viking Office Products(R), Viking Direct(R), Guilbert(R), and Tech Depot(R) brand names.

Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel - from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. With $3.1 billion in online sales in FY'04, the Company is the world's number three Internet retailer. In North America, Office Depot has 969 retail stores in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery centers and more than 60 local sales offices. Internationally, the Company conducts wholly-owned operations in 14 countries via 78 retail stores and 25 distribution centers, and operates 153 retail stores under joint venture and license arrangements in another seven countries.

The company's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com/