American Airlines
announced today it is supporting the 10th Annual Black Enterprise
Entrepreneurs Conference. American has supported the conference every year
since its inception. This year’s event, titled Seasons of Change: Taking Risks, Embracing
Opportunities, will be held May 18-22, 2005, at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel
in Dallas, Texas, and is expected to draw approximately 2,000 of the
nation’s top African-American entrepreneurs and business leaders.

To kick off the event, American Airlines Board of Directors member and
BLACK ENTERPRISE publisher Earl G. Graves, Sr. will present the State of
Black Business address.

American Airlines is hosting a luncheon at the conference, honoring
executives from the Black Enterprise “BE 100s” list, an annual list of the
top-grossing African-American owned industrial and service companies,
including 100 auto dealerships, 15 advertising agencies, and 65 financial-
services firms. American Airlines Vice President of Corporate
Communications and Advertising, Roger Frizzell, will be the keynote
speaker.

American has created opportunities for partnering with African-American
businessmen and women for years. The program affords qualified minority,
women-owned and small businesses opportunity to participate as potential
suppliers for products and services for American Airlines.

“Our Diversified Supplier Program is a catalyst to foster business
relationships with minority-owned and women-owned small businesses locally
and throughout the United States,” said John MacLean, American’s Vice
President of Purchasing. “We’ve been committed to this program for more
than 15 years, with our recent focus in the area of professional services
such as legal, information technology, human resources and financial
services.”

At the American Airlines booth, conference attendees will be able to
enroll in American’s AAdvantage(R) program and join the Admirals Club(R),
the ideal place to relax before, between or after flights. Attendees also
will be able to sign up for American’s Business ExtrAA product, a business
loyalty program by which small and mid-size companies can earn points
redeemable for travel awards on American, and business travelers earn
AAdvantage miles.

More information about the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference is
available at http://www.blackenterprise.com/ .
——-