The imperative for global diversity is steadfast and rooted in one of Merrill Lynch's five guiding Principles: Respect for the Individual. Our goal is to make Merrill Lynch the best place to work for the very best people - regardless of race, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disability. To achieve this goal, we are working to create an environment at Merrill Lynch where a diversity of cultures, people, and ideas provides the catalyst for personal and professional achievement. Visit our Website, www.ml.com, click on "World of Merrill Lynch" then "About Merrill Lynch," and select "Diversity" to find a complete copy of our July and December 1999 reports.

Victoria Varela Hudson is a founding principal of San Antonio, Texas-based Cartel Creativo, Inc., one of the Hispanic marketing industry's fastest-growing, strategic communications agencies. Ms. Varela Hudson has more than 20 years of expertise in the strategic planning and production of creative, award-winning communications projects in Latin America and the U.S. Her roster of successes includes everything from multi-million dollar grossing films, such as "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" and "Romancing The Stone," to first-time Effie Award winning advertising campaigns for Fortune 500 companies including Southwestern Bell and Bank One. Cartel Creativo has annual capitalized billings of more than $40 million and major clients including JCPenney and Labatt USA. Cartel Creativo differentiates itself from other ad agencies with its proprietary "New School Approach©" to the Hispanic market. Ms. Varela Hudson has received many prestigious awards and has been featured in magazines including "Advertising Age," "AdWeek" and Hispanic Magazine; Latina Magazine recognized her as one of the top Latina entrepreneurs and role models in the nation. Call Victoria Varela Hudson, President, or Irma Calderon Woodruff, Executive Director, 210-696-1099.

Expanding upon its first-generation success as the premier community-building, news-driven website targeted at the fast-growing Latino marketplace, Latino.com, Inc., creator of LatinoLink.com, announces its new vertical portal, Latino.com. President and co-founder Lavonne Luquis has assembled an award-winning team of Latino writers and editors in San Francisco to augment content for the integrated site. The company's New York office spearheads business development, advertising sales and marketing efforts, and plans to launch bureaus in Latino strongholds such as Miami, Los Angeles and Texas. Latino.com seeks to become the dominant portal for the Latino community in the U.S. and beyond. Call Rosa Alonzo, VP Marketing & Sales, 212-755-8777.

Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc., a public relations and marketing company representing experts in reaching the nation's ethnic markets will open the Multicultural Marketing Resources Library and Museum. The library, opening April 3, will serve as a resource for new and experienced marketers whose companies target the Hispanic, Asian American, African American, women, gay/lesbian and other cultural and lifestyle markets. The library will house basic demographic information on each market as well relevant articles and information on best practices. Specific reports and studies, such as Strategy Research Corp's US Hispanic Market Report, and the Asian American Media Directory will be available for examination. The library will also house a mini-museum of multicultural products from the collection of Founder Lisa Skriloff. The library/museum hopes to grow its collection and invites contributions of products developed specifically for ethnic markets, samples of advertising aimed at ethnic communities, research studies, books and historical documents related to the early days of multicultural marketing. Call Lisa Skriloff, President, 212-242-3351.

In a rush to get business initiatives online, there's often one critical piece missing: the strategy. "There's a dangerous myth in this red-hot economy that there is not enough time for strategy." says Carey Earle, CEO and Partner of The Harvest Consulting Group. Harvest works with Fortune 1000 and high-growth clients to develop ebusiness strategies that can evolve as their business changes. That makes Harvest passionate about time. "Time is a resource that can't be recycled," says Earle. "Time spent on 'the front end' of any ebusiness initiative saves money and pain on the 'back-end.' We counsel our clients to take the time to ask the tough questions and unearth key issues that are critical to their success, online and off." Harvest provides services in strategic planning, customized solution workshops and ebusiness writing. For more information visit their website at www.harvestconsult.com or call Carey Earle, Partner, 212-732-2358.

Aurora Communications, headquartered in East Harlem, is a public relations firm founded by journalist Aurora Flores in 1987. The firm has handled accounts from Sesame Street to Tito Puente getting them into ethnic and mainstream media and talk shows. Their clients include Pathmark, Goya Foods, Inc., McDonald's, Procter & Gamble and many nonprofit arts, health and business organizations. Ms. Flores serves on the National Women's Business Council and on the National Board of the Small Business Administration where she was appointed by SBA Administrator, Aida Alvarez. She has more than 5,000 published articles and has received many awards including the Metropolitan Business award from NAWBO in 1999 and the Governor's Office of Hispanic Affairs award for a major music concert she produced for Hispanic Heritage month. Call Aurora Flores, President, 212-410-2999.

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) has been working to increase the participation of people of color in advertising and to empower the industry to capitalize on diversity since 1989. Its educational nonprofit affiliate, the AAF Foundation, has expanded programming to include AAF's Most Promising Minority Students Program - a national industry hiring initiative that has presented the industry with 175 qualified minority college graduates since its 1996 debut. Now in its 4th year, the program's two-day agenda included the 4th annual Building Bridges for our Future awards luncheon held February 25, 2000 at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC. Other initiatives of the Foundation's Advisory Committee on Cultural Diversity include the Congressional Summit on Diversity in Washington, DC and conferences that bring together the CEOs of entire industries with heads of minority-owned agencies and media companies. Call Heide Gardner, Vice President, National Multicultural Initiatives, 202-898-0089.

Blockbuster client panelists include Colgate Palmolive, Mercedes Benz, Ameritech and Reebok speaking at Strategic Research Institute's conference, "Digital Gateway to African-American and Urban Consumers." Keynote speakers include Omar Wasow, BlackPlanet.com; Scott M. Mills, BET.com; Darien Dash, DME Interactive. Presenting companies include MTV Networks Interactive, Burrell, Uniworld Films, Total Music Network, Urban Box Office, NetNoir, Vigilante, Footsteps and Luminant Worldwide. Next up: "Profitable Hispanic Consumer Relationship Strategies," June 15-16, Santa Monica, CA. Call Rupa Ranganathan, 212-967-0095 x252, rranganathan@srinstitute.com.

The Association of Asian American Advertising Agencies (A5) held their 2nd annual conference on February 19. A panel discussion addressed key issues facing the Asian American advertising industry. Byron Lewis, Chairman and CEO of the Uniworld Group, keynote speaker, spoke about "Attracting the Attention of Corporate America- What Asian American and African American Advertising Agencies Can Learn From Each other." The association website, www.A5s.org was unveiled. The site contains information on the organization, membership application, news on upcoming events and will soon host demographics about the Asian American market. The mission of the A5 is to grow the Asian American advertising and marketing industry, raise public awareness of the importance of the community and further the professionalism of the industry. For more information call 212-242-3351.

The Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation (WHIDC) is a not-for-profit community development organization established in 1978 to serve the residents and businesses in the Washington Heights and Inwood sections of northern Manhattan. In 1992 WHIDC began the Business Opportunity Success System (BO$$) micro business development program. Besides its technical assistance and business mentoring services, BO$$ provides loans ranging from $400 to $20,000. The loan program is one of the most successful in the New York metro area in terms of number of loans, amount and default rates. The BO$$ program is targeted to individuals who live and/or operate a business in the Washington Heights/Inwood area, but does assist some businesses located in nearby Harlem, East Harlem and the western Bronx. WHIDC's plan is aimed at enlarging its loan pool and increasing the number of applicants it can help. Call Dennis Reeder, Executive Director, 212-795-1600 or visit the web page at http://members.aol.com/whidc.

May we brag? Lisa Skriloff, President of Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc., was named as the winner in the PRWeek Awards 2000 in the Solo PR Practitioner of the Year category. The first-ever PRWeek Awards were handed out at a gala black-tie event attended by over 1000 people on February 15 at New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel. The winners were picked from over 800 entries and were selected following extensive review by a panel with specialist knowledge in each of the 32 categories. Among previous awards that she's received: YWCA Salute to Women Achievers and PRSA Award for Best Newsletter. For more information call 212-242-3351.

KSCI-TV, founded in 1976, is the preeminent Asian language TV station in the US, providing news, sports, dramas and entertainment in 14 languages including Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Tagalog. The station delivers upscale Asian families for advertisers such as AT&T,
Colgate-Palmolive, Toyota, McDonald's, Metropolitan Life and Disneyland. The station's numerous community awards, including the Organization of Chinese Americans' Image Award and the Korean American Coalition's Community Service Award, shows its commitment to viewers. KSCI-TV was the first Asian-language station in LA to win an Emmy for its series, "U.S. Citizenship: A Dream Come True." Call Fernando Acosta, V.P., Sales & Marketing, 310-442-2724.

Isn't it time to renew your multicultural marketing strategy? The Internet is decreasing the limitation of physical borders and guiding the integration of the US Hispanics and Latin Americans. It is your responsibility to establish a relationship where your customers are - and Latinos are Online! Attend LatinOnlineä to hear the results of cutting edge research studies and learn the multicultural marketing paths taken by major corporations. Ask Questions. Discuss the topic of your choice at the Interactive Roundtable Luncheon Session. Target the Niche within a Niche at the Intensive Workshops: Understanding What Hispanic Women Want Online and The Latino Youth Interactive Panel. You will explore and learn what it takes to penetrate the converging and expanding Latino Market! Conference Fee, $1495, With 1 workshop $1895, With 2 workshops, $2195. To register or for more information, call IIR, 212-661-3500 ext. 3044, email jisrael@iirny.com or visit our website at http://www.iir-ny.com/conference.cfm?eventid=m1174.