Calvert Investments to Rank Merck & Co., Inc. as Leader on Advancement of Women and Minorities

BETHESDA, MD.///NEWS ADVISORY///Are Merck & Co., Inc. and other S&P 100 Index companies putting more women and minorities on boards and in executive suites? A major new Calvert Investments analysis to be released at 1 p.m. EST on March 7, 2013 will show whether or not these leading corporations are making meaningful progress in their corporate diversity initiatives.

Updating a 2010 Calvert report, the 2012 analysis will rank Merck & Co., Inc. as a top five company in terms of the advancement of women.

Other top-ranked and bottom-ranked companies will include (in alphabetical order): Apache Corp., Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Ebay, JPMorgan Chase & Co., National Oilwell Varco Inc., and Simon Property Group.

The Calvert report looks at the number of women on S&P 100 Index company boards, the extent to which women are represented among the highest-paid executives, the prevalence of minority women in key positions, the rise of corporate diversity programs, and whether or not companies publicly disclose employee demographic data that investors could use to evaluate the effectiveness of the companies’ corporate diversity efforts.

News event participants will be:

* Christine DeGroot, report author and associate sustainability analyst, Calvert Investment Management, Inc.; and

* Malli Gero, executive director, 2020 Women on Boards.

TO PARTICIPATE: You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1 p.m. EST on March 7, 2013 by dialing 1 (888) 437-2685. Ask for the "Calvert Investments corporate diversity report" telenews event.

CAN’T PARTICIPATE?: A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.calvert.com/literature/documents/CorporateDiversity2013.mp3 as of 5 p.m. EST on March 7, 2013.

CONTACT: Leslie Maloy, (703) 276-3256 or lmaloy@hastingsgroup.com.

Calvert Investments is an investment management company that offers mutual funds and separate accounts to institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and their clients. By combining rigorous analysis with independent thinking, our disciplined approach to money management goes beyond traditional factors in order to manage risk and to identify investment opportunities with greater long-term potential. We offer more than 40 equity, bond, cash, and asset allocation investment strategies, many of which feature integrated corporate sustainability and responsibility research. Founded in 1976 and based in Bethesda, Maryland, Calvert Investments managed assets of more than $12 billion as of 2/28/13.

Calvert Investment Management, Inc., 4550 Montgomery Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814