Executive Council Announces 2004 "Ten Awards" Finalists
Executives from American Express, JetBlue Airways, Zagat Survey and New York Magazine among New York Leaders Honored
New York, NY, October 8, 2004

The Executive Council of New York today announced the finalists for The New York Ten Awards™, an annual award recognizing ten leaders in the greater New York business community who exemplify leadership and innovation within their industry and beyond.

"Each of these luminaries has been a major contributor to the New York business environment -- no matter the industry, local business executives are driving business innovation both in New York and globally," said Bob Johnston, president of The Executive Council of New York. "The caliber of business leadership in the New York area made this decision a difficult one for our judges, who reviewed over 170 nominations for this year's Ten Awards gala."

"While we're often thought of as a west coast company, we've always been committed to cultivating the corporate environment in New York, the business capital of the world," said Marty Cassidy of Microsoft Corporation, Host Sponsor for the 2004 Ten Awards. "The Ten Awards recognizes the men and women who've set the precedent for business leadership in our community."

Previous winners of the Ten Awards have included Hossein Eslambolchi, President, AT&T Labs, Sallie Krawcheck, CEO, Smith Barney (recently named CFO of Citigroup) and Shelby Bonnie, CEO, CNET Networks.

2004 "Ten Awards" Finalists include:
L. Gordon Crovitz, Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Co.; President, Electronic Publishing
Barry S. Sternlicht, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
David Neeleman, CEO, JetBlue Airways
Bruce E. Mosler, President, Cushman & Wakefield
Harold McGraw III, CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies
Robert Catell, Chariman and CEO, KeySpan Corporation
Russell Simmons, CEO, RUSH Communications
Tim and Nina Zagat, Co-founders, Zagat Survey
Kenneth Chenault, CEO, American Express
Andrea Jung, CEO, Avon Products, Inc.
Cathy Martine, SVP Internet Telephony, AT&T
Adam Moss, Publisher, New York Magazine
Richard Korhammer, CEO, Lava Trading
B. Thomas Golisano, CEO, PayChex
Stephen Messer, CEO, LinkShare
Chris Albrecht, CEO, HBO
Jonathan M. Tisch, CEO, Loews Hotels
Ann M. Fudge, CEO, Young & Rubicam
Antonio "LA" Reid, CEO, Arista Records
Barbara Chang, Executive Director, NPower NY


The "Ten Awards" finalists were drawn from open nominations submitted to The Executive Council earlier this year. The nominations were screened and evaluated by a panel of judges comprised of prominent journalists from New York-based local and national business media outlets.

Award winners will be formally announced at the "Ten Awards" Gala on October 21, 2004 at Gotham Hall. For more details on the "Ten Awards" and the Executive Council, visit http://www.execcouncil.org.

About The Executive Council The Executive Council is a non-profit organization that brings together New York's business community for the purposes of fostering knowledge-sharing and business networking in a professional environment. The Executive Council programs focus on critical business and leadership issues at the intersection of technology and business, with unique industry programs focusing on venture capital, security, and corporate governance, among others. Its initiatives and corporate members contribute to the economic prosperity of the region while fostering knowledge and information sharing, professional development and partnership opportunities for our members. The Executive Council Corporate Members range from AT&T, IBM and Microsoft to TimeWarner, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch as well as many other large and emerging growth technology and financial services companies and major law and accounting firms.