Press Release

For Immediate Release
8 May 2006

ACTE Urges Members to Participate in ECPAT
Fight Against the Trafficking of Women and Children

Atlanta, GA -- ACTE has taken a leadership role in educating the industry in the fight against the trafficking of women and children in the corporate travel industry. ACTE is pleased that Marilyn Carlson Nelson Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carlson Companies, in her keynote presentation at the ACTE Global Education Conference in Atlanta on May 7 urged ACTE delegates to become signatories to the ECPAT Code. ECPAT stands for "End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes."

Carlson Nelson said, "We have signed [ECPAT's] Code of Conduct which commits us to supporting the fight against this widespread and horrible practice, through training in our hotels, and communications throughout our company with employees and suppliers. At present, Carlson Nelson remains the only U.S. signatory of the ECPAT Code."

Even before Carlson Nelson challenged the audience to become a member of ECPAT, ACTE's Executive Director Susan Gurley had been working on providing education on the issue of trafficking of women and children to the ACTE membership.

In fact, she has established a relationship with the MTV Foundation in Europe to bring the issue of trafficking to the ACTE Singapore Conference in August. As former Assistant Dean of International Programs at the Georgetown University Law Center, Gurley was instrumental in adding a course on this subject to the curriculum.

"ACTE's international membership is uniquely poised to make a difference for thousands of women and children who are being trafficked on a daily basis." said Gurley. "Through training, communications and public awareness, the business travel industry can help eliminate these practices. The Carlson Companies are true leaders in this regard."

Gurley further pledged that ACTE would begin devising RFP language that supported the ECPAT code in much the same way companies seek to identify trading partners with a similar commitment to the environment. Gurley is looking to add the signature of ACTE U.S., ACTE Canada, ACTE EMEA, and ACTE Asia-Pacific to the code in the immediate future.

The initial response of the ACTE membership (representing the largest group of international high volume business travel service purchasers and suppliers in the world), many of whom were assembled in Atlanta for one of the association's three annual global educational conferences, was overwhelmingly favorable.

For more information, contact:
Jack Riepe
Communications/PR
Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE)
t: 610-719-8396
c: 610-256-0124
e: [email protected]