Urban Influence Magazine & Yum! Brands Host Power Summit in Houston

Inaugural event promotes professional development for African-Americans

HOUSTON (March 17, 2007) – African-American professionals are emerging as one of the fastest growing groups of professionals in the United States.  Recognizing this, Urban Influence Magazine (UIM), official publication of The National Urban League, (NUL), will host the inaugural Power Summit in Houston.

Co-hosted by the Yum! Brands and the Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals (HAULYP), the half day business and professional development power conference is designed to inspire, educate and connect emerging African American “influencers”. According to the US Census Bureau, 17% of African-American professionals above the age of 25 are emerging leaders in their communities; obtain advanced degrees at a rapid rate.

"Yum! Brands is proud to be a strategic partner of Urban Influence Magazine because it provides tools to help emerging leaders develop," said Jonathan Blum, Yum! Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Yum! Brands, Inc. "The partnership reflects our commitment to diversity - our global culture is actively developing a workforce with a broad mix of backgrounds and the new magazine is designed to further professional development. Diversity helps drive all aspect of our business - from careers and franchising to supplier development," said Blum.

The UIM Power Summit will showcase dynamic workshops and discussions in the areas of professional development, community involvement, financial literacy and personal empowerment. Sessions include Brand YOU: Marketing Your Personal Image For Business Success, The Emerging Black & Brown Majority, The Roadmap to Wealth and the exciting CEO Roundtable, a lively discussion about the future of trends in business and education for African-Americans and Hispanics.

Speakers include: Former contestant from “The Apprentice” and Summit keynote speaker Kwame Jackson, Oscar Joyner, President & CEO of REACH Media, the company founded by his father, Tom Joyner of the popular Tom Joyner Morning Show, Sylvia Brooks, CEO of the Houston Area Urban League, and Shawn Taylor, Houston area Taco Bell franchisee.  

Urban Influence Magazine is a joint venture between T. Brown Publishing and the National Urban League. Urban Influence Magazine is designed to extend the message of the National Urban League throughout its membership and beyond, while addressing relevant issues of emerging urban influencers.

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Contact Information:
Julie O. Griffith
O: 713-449-2931
julie@jgriffithpr.com

Yum! Brands Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with over 34,000 restaurants, which includes over 2,000 licensed restaurants, in more than 100 countries and territories. Four of the company's restaurant brands -- KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's -- are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories respectively. Yum! Brands is the worldwide leader in multibranding, which offers consumers more choice and convenience at one restaurant location from a combination of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W or Long John Silver's brands. The company and its franchisees today operate over 3,400 multibrand restaurants. Outside the United States in 2005, the Yum! Brands' system opened about three new restaurants each day of the year, making it one of the fastest growing retailers in the world. For the past four years, the company has been recognized as one of Fortune Magazine's "Top 50 Employers for Minorities." It also has been recognized as one of the "Top 50 Employers for Women" by Fortune, one of the "40 Best Companies for Diversity" by Black Enterprise Magazine for the past two years, one of Black Enterprise Magazine's "30 Hottest Franchises for 2006," one of the "Corporate 100 Companies Providing Opportunities for Hispanics" by Hispanic Magazine, one of the "Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity" by Hispanic Trends Magazine and by BusinessWeek as one of the "Top 15 Companies for In-Kind Corporate Philanthropy."