Washington Mutual Honored for Creating Contracting Opportunities for Woman-Owned Business Vendors

The award, presented at a gala dinner in Oakland on Nov. 3, wasprompted by Washington Mutual's nine-year contracting relationshipwith Tajima Creative, a strategic design and marketing group that hasworked with Washington Mutual since 1996. Tajima Creative, WashingtonMutual's largest woman-owned supplier was certified as a womanbusiness enterprise in 2004.

Washington Mutual received the annual "Done Deal Award" for themore than 200 transactions it has had with Tajima Creative. The awardwas created by Astra to showcase corporations who create contractingopportunities for Astra-certified women business owners.

"We're pleased to be honored for our supplier diversity programand for fostering an atmosphere of encouragement, cooperation andachievement for women," said Laura King, vice president, CommodityManager in Strategic Sourcing.

Washington Mutual's supplier diversity program has a long-termgoal of awarding 15 percent of supplier-related contract expenses tobusinesses that are at least 51 percent owned by minorities, women orindividuals with disabilities.

Last year Washington Mutual was named one of the "Top 10 Companiesfor Supplier Diversity" by Diversity Inc. and included in a list ofthe "Top 25 Minor Vendor Programs for Latinos" by Hispanic Magazine.

Astra, a third-party certifier of women-owned businesses under theWBENC standards, providers personal, professional and incomedevelopment skills for women business owners in Oregon, Washington,Idaho, Alaska, Nevada and Northern California.

Established in 1996, Tajima Creative is based in Menlo Park,Calif. and has offices in Los Angeles and Seattle. It focuses oncreating compelling customer experiences.

With a history dating back to 1889, Washington Mutual is aretailer of financial services that provides a diversified line ofproducts and services to consumers and commercial clients. AtSeptember 30, 2005, Washington Mutual and its subsidiaries had assetsof $333.62 billion. Washington Mutual currently operates more than2,500 retail banking, mortgage lending, commercial banking andfinancial services offices throughout the nation. Washington Mutual'spress releases are available at www.wamunewsroom.com.