Edison, NJ - November 6, 2008 - Stanley Litow, President of the IBM Foundation and IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship was awarded CRO Magazine's CEO of the Year 2008 Award in the Corporate Foundation category at the joint CRO Conference/SustainPro Conference in Chicago. In making the award, CRO Magazine Publisher Jay Whitehead cited Litow's leadership in evolving corporate philanthropy beyond simple financial contributions into an integrated program of objective-driven community support that, in IBM's case, involves metric-monitored commitment of money, manpower, technology and expertise. "On Stanley Litow's watch, IBM has multiplied the impact of its Foundation by integrating financial giving with significant levels of non-financial resource contributions," said Whitehead. "As a result, Litow's IBM model is today seen in many board rooms as the new model for large-company foundation work."

"I am grateful to CRO Magazine for this recognition of IBM's corporate responsibility leadership," said IBM's Stanley Litow on the award. "It's no secret that we're in the midst of difficult economic times, but this is no time for us to back away from our commitments toward corporate responsibility. If anything we need to redouble our leadership. Our shareholders, employees, clients and the public are insisting on it."

The CRO Magazine CEO of the Year Awards are presented each year at the Fall CRO Conferences. The 2009 CRO Conference schedule includes 3 dates, April 23, 2009 at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington DC, June 18, 2009 at the Omni Park and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and October 6, 2009 at the Union League Club in Chicago.

The 6 other winners of the CRO Magazine CEO of the Year Awards 2008 were as follows:

Large Cap Company: Paul S. Otellini, President & CEO, Intel Corp.

Mid-Cap Company: : Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com, Inc.

Small Cap Company: Neil D. Eckert, CEO, Climate Exchange PLC

Non-Profit/NGO: Charles Moore, Executive Director, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy

Government: Richard Daley, Mayor, City of Chicago

Social Entrepreneur: Jeffrey Hollender, President & Chief Inspired Protagonist, Seventh Generation

CRO features issues of interest to strategy-level corporate officers in compliance, governance, sustainability, CSR and philanthropy, and SustainPro is CRO's annual focus on operational corporate sustainability topics. Keynote speakers at the CRO and SustainPro Conference October 29-30 included renewable energy advocate and Pickens Plan for American Energy Independence T. Boone Pickens, President-elect Obama's top environment and energy advisor Howard Learner, XPrize Foundation CEO and Founder Dr. Peter Diamandis MD.

About CRO Magazine and the CRO Conferences

CRO Magazine, CRO Conferences and the CRO Association are North America's leading platform for the $37 billion Corporate Responsibility profession, which includes governance, risk, compliance (GRC), CSR, sustainability and corporate philanthropy. With over 200 members including some of the world's best brands, CRO's mission is to continuing improvement in professional practices within corporate responsibility. CRO Magazine publishes the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List each year. CRO is a title of privately-held Crossing Media LLC, based in Edison, NJ. More information at www.thecro.com and www.crossingmedia.com.

The CRO

The CRO

Launched August 1, 2006 by business media veterans Jay Whitehead, CEO and Michael Connor, Editor and Publisher, The CRO is the leading corporate membership media platform in corporate responsibility. The CRO's media products include CRO Magazine, TheCRO.com, CRO Conference and webinars. The CRO covers governance, compliance, ethics, corporate social responsibility, investor relations, citizenship, socially responsible investing, sustainability, philanthropy and related topics. Members include 100+ corporations including IBM, Pepsi, Citigroup, Avon, Mattel, Washington Mutual, Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, OCEG, LRN, OPI, and others. Headquartered in New York City and Roseland, NJ. More information at www.The CRO.com.

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