Ranking to Provide Benchmark for Exporters, Multinational Companies

New York (March 3, 2008) – The Ethisphere Institute, a think-tank dedicated to the research and promotion of profitable best practices in governance, business ethics, compliance and corporate responsibility announced today that it will be publishing its first annual Anti-Corruption Quotient for global corporations, which will appear in the Q3 issue of Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere Magazine is the quarterly publication of the Institute, and is the largest print publication in compliance, ethics, and corporate social responsibility.

This list will rate and rank the 500 largest U.S. and EU exporters and their efforts to prevent corruption in business dealings.

Bribery and corrupt practices have come under greater global scrutiny over the last few years. The number of government investigations of corporate offenders doubled in the last year, with nearly 50 such investigations pending in the U.S. alone.

“Global corruption is a serious problem which interferes with both economic development and individual democratic rights,” said Alex Brigham, executive director of the Ethisphere Institute. “By shedding light on which companies are at the forefront of preventing corruption in their own dealings, we will be highlighting these oftentimes unsung but valuable corporate initiatives so others may learn from them.”

The Ethisphere Institute will recognize companies worldwide who have enacted appropriate measures to prevent such violations. Public and private companies that handle over $100 million in exports to or do business with Latin America, Africa, Asia, or Eastern Europe will be considered.

The Institute will review and assign scores to major exporters and multinational companies in terms of alignment with key provisions of anti-corruption laws and best practices in preventing corruption in overseas business. The reviewing and scoring will be advised by a panel of experts from the anti-corruption field, including academic, government and law professionals as well as international anti-corruption groups.

“We are very excited to have such a highly-esteemed panel of experts crafting the methodology as to what constitutes effective anti-corruption efforts in international business dealings,” said Brigham. “The generous participation of top legal practitioners as well as highly respected leaders in anti-corruption from organizations such as Transparency International, TRACE and the World Bank, will bring tremendous global expertise to this project.”

The advisory committee includes:

• Manny A Alas, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
• Margaret M. Ayres, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell
• Nancy Boswell, President, Transparency International
• Gary DiBianco, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
• Timothy L. Dickinson, Partner, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
• Thomas W. Dunfee, Professor, Business Ethics University of Pennsylvania
• Christoph Frei, Senior Director, World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative
• David Hess, Assistant Professor of Business Law & Business Ethics, Ross School of Business University of Michigan
• Michael E. Horowitz, Esq., Partner, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
• Scott Lane, The Red Flag Group
• Judith Lee, Partner, Gibson,Dunn & Crutcher LLP
• Brian Levy, Adviser, Public Sector Governance, World Bank
• Lucinda A. Low, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
• Danforth Newcomb, Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP
• Kimberly A. Parker, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
• Lisa Prager, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• Claudius O. Sokenu, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
• Alexandra Wrage, President, Trace International
• Martin Weinstein, Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
• Don Zarin, Partner, Holland & Knight/PLI

The information that the companies provide will not be made public or shared with the advisory committee; an aggregate score will be published in the magazine. Companies interested in having their programs considered for the Anti-Corruption Quotient should visit http://ethisphere.com/anticorruption/.