Award for Corporate Excellence

Secretary Rice hosts 2007 ACE multinational winner GE. more photos

The Award for Corporate Excellence, established by the State Department in 1999, recognizes the important role U.S. businesses play abroad as good corporate citizens. The Award sends a strong signal of the Department's commitment to further exemplary practices worldwide and highlights our increasing role in business-related issues. Winners include both multinational (MNE) and small-to-medium size enterprises (SME).

U.S. companies are nominated by Chiefs of Mission and the winners are recognized with a handsome, copyrighted award in a formal ceremony hosted by the Secretary of State in Washington, DC. The ceremony, attended by representatives from Congress, the Diplomatic Corps and leaders from both the business and NGO communities includes participation, via satellite, with winning Chiefs of Mission, in-country company executives and invited guests. The event is open to the media in Washington and overseas.

The deadline for nominations for the 10th Anniversary of the Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) is June 13, 2008. Calls for nominations went out from Under Secretary of State Reuben Jeffery III to all U.S. Ambassadors worldwide on April 4, 2008. Nominations will be accepted for companies in both the MNE and SME category based on the ACE criteria; nominations for the ACE award must be submitted under the imprimatur of the U.S. Chief of Mission regarding a company's activities in the host country.