Verizon, for Fifth Straight Year, Ranked Among the Best Companies for Latinas to Work for by 'LATINA Style' Magazine

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications, for the fifth consecutive year, has been ranked by LATINA Style magazine as one of the top 13 companies on the publication's list of the 50 Best Companies for Latinas to Work for in the U.S.

Since 2003, when the magazine named Verizon Company of the Year, Verizon has made the Top 13 list.

The LATINA Style survey, now in its 10th year, is an annual evaluation of corporate America's sensitivity to Latinas' needs and goals in the workplace, and identifies the corporations that are providing the best career opportunities for Latinas in the United States.  Verizon was among 1,000 corporations included in the extensive research.

Companies are evaluated based on issues that LATINA Style readers identified as most important to them in the workplace. Among the principal areas of evaluation are: number of Latina executives, mentoring programs, Latina board members, educational opportunities, alternative work policies, dependent/child care support, employee benefits, women's issues, job retraining, affinity groups and Hispanic relations. Evaluations for the 2007 annual report were based on 2006 data.

"It's an honor to be recognized by LATINA Style," said Magda Yrizarry, vice president, workplace culture, diversity and compliance for Verizon. "To deliver the kind of customer experience needed to remain a leader in an increasingly competitive and diverse marketplace, our employees must reflect the communities we serve. At Verizon, understanding our customers' needs and speaking their languages is simply how we do business."

An annual awards ceremony honoring the LATINA Style 50 Companies will take place Feb. 7, 2008, at LATINA Style's Diversity Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.

At Verizon, women and minority employees make up 59 percent of the workforce and account for over 40 percent of the company's top management team. Partnerships with colleges and universities as well as professional and community-based organizations serve as the cornerstone of Verizon's recruitment strategy.

Employees can create their own road map for advancement through mentoring, training, education initiatives, and through development and leadership initiatives that target high-performing employees, with a special focus on identifying women and minorities for developmental opportunities.

Earlier this year, DiversityInc Magazine named Verizon Communications to the No. 6 position on the magazine's 2007 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list. For the second year in a row, Verizon was named to Working Mother Magazine's Best Companies for Multicultural Women, a list of 20 companies with cutting-edge policies and practices that support African-American, Asian-American, Latina and Native-American Women in the workplace.

In March, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) again named Verizon one of the top American corporations for women's business enterprises.  The winners were selected on the basis of their world-class supplier diversity programs, which offer equal access for women's business enterprises in competing for, and winning, corporate contracts for goods and services.

Also in 2007, Verizon earned a Top 10 ranking on Black MBA magazine's list of Top 50 Companies for African-American MBAs to Work.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 62 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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