Good Afternoon.

I have the honor and the privilege of bringing you greetings on behalf of all of us at Texaco. We congratulate and salute the NAACP on this 91^st anniversary and we commend the critically important work of this organization under the visionary leadership of Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume.

Texaco is honored to be the sponsor of this luncheon for the second year and we are proud of the long relationship we have had with the NAACP---a relationship that proved very valuable to Texaco during the racial discrimination lawsuit that our company faced in 1996. At that time, Texaco sought and received the sage advice and counsel of Kwesi Mfume, both during the negotiations leading up to the settlement of the lawsuit and latter as we began putting together our diversity initiatives.

I am very proud to report that in just three short years since the lawsuit Texaco has made tremendous progress on diversity. Today we know that diversity has made Texaco a stronger, better and smarter Company. Now, unfortunately time will not allow me to go into greater detail, but I would like to take a moment to share two of our most important achievements:

Last year at Texaco, minorities and women accounted for 68% of all of US hires and 66% of all promotions. And, we have nearly achieved our five-year goal of spending $1 billion dollars with minority and women businesses. In just three years, we have already spent $820 million with minorities and women.

In closing, let me just say that despite our progress, we still have much to do. We are a long way from where we were in 1996, but we still are not where we need to be. Like any critical business initiative, diversity requires continuous effort and relentless focus. We understand that diversity is not a destination, but a journey that we need to work at every day.

I can assure you that Texaco is committed to making that journey.

Thank you again to the NAACP for allowing us the privilege of being your sponsor today.

Enjoy the luncheon.