"We were inspired by the wonderful work that so many people are doing in the world of business, medicine, academia and government." said Greg Moore, chairman of the Outie Awards Committee. "We had a very difficult job in deciding which nominees to pass onto our judges. But after much deliberation and review, the winners began to emerge."

The Out & Equal Workplace Advocates group said it was honoring Warren, N.J.-based Chubb Group for providing "significant support to the company's Gay & Lesbian Employee Network (GLEN) by providing sponsorship and executive presence at the company's first Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, held in conjunction with the 2002 Out & Equal Workplace Summit group meeting.

LGBT said Chubb had developed a communications program to inform senior leadership of the summit meeting, and to gain their commitment to support their staff members' attendance.

Chubb's then chairman and chief executive officer, Dean O Hare, gave the keynote address at Chubb's internal conference. As a result of the company Leadership Conference, six committees were formed to drive initiatives forward. Those committees include: Education, Visibility, Legislation, Marketing, LGBT Consumer, Event Sponsorship (external), and LGBT Event Planning (internal), Out & Equal said.