6.13.2000 ET

(CSRwire) After an extensive search and review of child care providers, Abbott recently named Bright Horizons Family Solutions®, the nation's leading provider of employer-sponsored child care, to manage its on-site child care center. The company also appointed a director and manager to oversee all aspects of the company's three-part child care solutions strategy which also includes care for school-age children and community-based programs.

"Quality and safety are top priorities for all Abbott initiatives, so it was natural for Abbott to select the country's leader in child care development to manage our on-site development center," said Peggy Taylor, divisional vice president, Lake County human resources, Abbott Laboratories. "Bright Horizons' experience and reputation gives us the confidence that the needs of our employees who have children enrolled in the facility will be well met."

In addition to selecting the child care center provider, Abbott has also named two key employees to manage all aspects of the company's newly implemented child care solutions strategy. Peter Esteve was named director of Abbott's Lake County child care solutions programs and Abbott veteran Jim Sipes has been named project manager for the child care center.

Esteve will oversee all of Abbott's child care programs and will spearhead Abbott's efforts to increase the supply and improve the quality of local child care in the community through programs such as home provider recruitment, provider education, national accreditation of local centers and development of before-and after-school programs. Sipes will work closely with Bright Horizons to establish operating philosophies and procedures for the on-site center which is scheduled to open in spring 2001.

The company broke ground in April on its 46,000 square-foot on-site child care center, the largest in the state and one of the largest in the country. The on-site center, expected to serve approximately 425 children, is part of the company's three-part child care strategy designed to help employees balance their personal and professional lives. This strategy, which also includes interim care programs and a collaborative initiative to address broader community child care needs, was developed by the company's child care solutions team, a cross-functional, cross-divisional team of Abbott employees and parents. One aspect of the company's interim child care initiative, the Summer of Service, will kick off later this month on June 19. The Summer of Service program is designed to help working parents and the community through a unique community-service based program for teenagers entering sixth through ninth grade.

Abbott Laboratories is a global, diversified health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, nutritional and hospital products. Nearly 17,000 Abbott employees and retirees reside in the area surrounding Abbott's operations in Lake County, Ill.