(January 9 – 12:30 ET) – Dominic D’Alessandro, president and CEO of Manulife Financial, has been selected by the Canadian Public Relations Society Toronto as the recipient of its 2000-2001 Award of Excellence in Public Relations.

The annual award acknowledges the increasing need for CEOs to be excellent communicators, as well as strong financial and strategic leaders.

The 10th annual award luncheon will include a speech by D’Alessandro entitled “Stakeholder Communications: Making it Count.” The luncheon takes places on Thursday, January 18 at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel.

Past winners of this award include Bobbie Gaunt (Ford of Canada Limited), Dianne McGarry (Xerox Canada), George Cohon (McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada), David Bloom (Shoppers Drug Mart) and Alan Stark (American Express).

D’Alessandro has been president and CEO of Manulife Financial since 1994 and last year led the company to its sixth consecutive year of record financial growth. In September 1999, he headed the successful demutualization and conversion of Manulife to public company status. In addition, under D’Alessandro’s leadership, sponsorships and donations to communities in which Manulife conducts business have more than tripled in the past five years.
-IE Staff