Published Date: 10/05/2006

ING was a Gold Sponsor of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance & Accounting (ALPFA) convention, held recently in Ft. Worth, Texas. ALPFA is the leading professional association dedicated to enhancing opportunities for Latinos in the accounting, finance and related professions.

The convention attracted 3,000 Latino finance and accounting professionals from all over the country, as well as Puerto Rico. ING was highlighted as a sponsor of the convention’s welcoming breakfast, and received an award for its support as a Gold Sponsor.

ING was well represented at the convention with representatives from multiple business lines from both USFS and ING Investment Management. For example,

Josh Grzelak, manager, and Jody Russo, consultant, Hartford Human Resources, attended and hosted the ING booth during the Career Fair. Tom Lutter, controller, USFS Life Group, West Chester, conducted a continuing education session titled “Role of a Controller” for an audience of approximately 150 ALPFA participants.

Jacqui Robertson, head of Workforce Diversity, participated on an executive panel with five other senior executives from PWC, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank, JP Morgan and Deloitte & Touche. Robertson received the most positive feedback; in fact, several people stopped by the ING booth to say how impressed and moved they were by her speech.

“The partnership between ALPFA and ING makes sense because we are always looking for talent,” Robertson said. “Further, ALPFA members have the skills and competencies — finance and accounting — that we require for at least two of our major business units. Through these partnerships, we begin to gain insight into external talent that’s bigger than our traditional view of talent. If we want to succeed as a business in the U.S. or the Americas, we will need to remove our blinders and open ourselves up to the enormous, complicated and different world in which we will be intricately linked in the future. In that circumstance, diversity is not the enemy of excellence, it is the catalyst and the agent of excellence.”

Other notable ING attendees