Celebrating its 20th anniversary recognizing corporate initiatives that advance women and business, Catalyst today announced that Bank of Nova Scotia, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., PepsiCo, Inc., and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP are the recipients of the 2007 Catalyst Award.

Since 1987, Catalyst has honoured strategic business initiatives that result in the advancement of women in the workplace. It says the 2007 winners are four exceptional initiatives that have measurably advanced women and diversity in business.

Scotiabank is the first Canadian winner of the Catalyst Award since 1999.

“Over the past twenty years, we’ve seen winning initiatives evolve from stand-alone programs to strategic imperatives that drive business success,” said Ilene Lang, president of Catalyst. “By publicly celebrating these triumphs, we encourage others to embrace women’s advancement as a source of competitive business advantage.”

This year’s winning initiatives are particularly significant against a backdrop in which, according to recent Catalyst research, women are still vastly underrepresented in senior leadership positions and on the boards of both FP 500 and Fortune 500 companies.

“Catalyst Award winning initiatives demonstrate the strategic business case that diversity and advancing women in the workplace are good for women and business, “ said Deborah Gillis, executive director of Catalyst Canada.

As in previous years, the four winning initiatives were reviewed and judged rigorously on criteria including business rationale, senior leadership support, communication, measurable results, accountability, originality, and replicability.

Through research, which demonstrated that women had the skills, proven performance levels, and aspirations to contribute at more senior levels, Scotiabank found a strong business case to support the creation of its Advancement of Women Initiative. The organization’s most senior women started this business-focused imperative that improved women’s representation by leveraging existing processes, programs and platforms, thereby reinforcing the business value of the work. Through this initiative, Scotiabank has significantly improved senior women’s representation at the bank: the number of women at all senior levels – from vice president and above – nearly doubled from 2003 to 2006.

“Scotiabank is delighted and honoured to receive the 2007 Catalyst Award. Our Advancement of Women initiative enables us to engage the widest possible talent pool and that makes good business sense,” said Rick Waugh, President and CEO.

The award-winning companies will present in-depth discussions of their initiatives at the 2007 Catalyst Awards Conference, sponsored by General Motors Corporation and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., at the Grand Hyatt in New York City on March 21. Later that evening, Tony Comper, President and CEO of BMO Financial Group, will chair the 2007 Annual Catalyst Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, which will honour this year’s Award winners.