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By wire services
Published August 28, 2005

CALL THEM the Jackie Robinsons of corporate America - black executives who did for business what Robinson did for Major League Baseball. "They battled their way into the executive suite," Fortune says. In 1962, Harvey Russell became the first African-American named vice president of a Fortune 500 company, Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi president Herbert Barnet said at the time that Russell was "one of our brilliant young men" and got his promotion solely on merit. The magazine spotlights six executives who followed in Russell's footsteps: senior vice presidents James Avery of Exxon, James "Bud" Ward of Marriott and Darwin Davis of Equitable; and chief executives George Lewis of Philip Morris Capital Corp., Lee Archer of a General Foods investment operation and Clifton Wharton Jr. of TIAA-CREF.

INVESTORS MAY FINALLY have a source for "hot tips," Better Investing says. Because of a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement with state regulatory agencies, several major brokerages agreed to provide independent recommendations to their customers. That means investors now have access to more third-party stock reports, the magazine says, through agencies such as Standard & Poor's, Argus Research, Morningstar and Value Line.

A BASIC TENET of U.S. oil policy is that we must stimulate new domestic sources and reduce overall demand. But Fortune says that strategy could make us even more dependent on foreign oil. The costs of pumping oil in the United States are among the highest in the world, and the costs in the Middle East are the lowest. "So any significant reduction in U.S. demand would hit domestic sources hard but do little to change the amount of foreign oil we buy," the magazine says. If U.S. demand plunges, it will drive down oil prices - and when prices are low, many U.S. oil fields become too expensive to keep open.

HEALTH INSURANCE became the most expensive employee benefit for the first time last year because costs have risen 70 percent since 2000, according to a report. Medical coverage accounted for 33 percent of the cost of employee benefits, compared with 32 percent for vacation time, holidays and sick leave, the Employment Policy Foundation in Washington said.

SETON HALL UNIVERSITY recently removed the name of alumnus and convicted felon Dennis Kozlowski from a class building, but Bloomberg Markets says it's not the only school with a benefactor later caught up in corporate crime. St. Bonaventure University is home to the Rigas Family Theater, named for John Rigas, sentenced to 15 years for looting cable company Adelphia Communications. At the University of Missouri, the $1.1-million Kenneth L. Lay chair in economics remains unfilled while Lay, former Enron CEO, awaits trial in January.

Compiled from Times wires and Web sites.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 17:39:02]