BETHESDA, MD, 21-DEC-04 -- For the fourth consecutive year, Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] was selected by DiversityBusiness.com (formerly Div2000.com) – the nation’s largest organization of diversity-owned businesses – as one of the top three companies providing multicultural business opportunities to minority and women-owned businesses. Over 350,000 women and minority-owned businesses had the opportunity to participate in an online election, which produced a list of the nation’s top 50 Div50 corporations for multicultural business opportunities. Honorees were selected based on factors including the volume, consistency and quality of business opportunities granted to women and minority-owned companies.

Lockheed Martin was ranked second overall in this year’s election. Noting the significance of companies that made the Div50 list, Kenton Clarke, DiversityBusiness.com’s President & CEO, said: Those organizations that buy the most products and services, most consistently, from diversity businesses, and that sustain the most mutually beneficial business relationships with their multicultural suppliers, should be recognized not only by the suppliers but also by the general public.

Mike Bush, Lockheed Martin’s director of supplier diversity, said: The fact that Div50 honorees are selected by the minority and women owned business community is significant. For Lockheed Martin to have been in the top three for four consecutive years suggests that our efforts to ensure that small businesses have a fair opportunity to compete has been effective. He continued, We work very hard to ensure that we provide equal opportunity to all businesses seeking to do business with Lockheed Martin, and our supplier diversity team deserves the credit for this recognition.

To learn more about doing business with Lockheed Martin, visit https://suppliernet.external.lmco.com/suppliernet/main/small_business.cfm