Awards

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Robert Eckert, chairman and CEO of Mattel, will be presented the community leader award at the Exceptional Children’s Foundation's 65th Anniversary Gala. The recognition acknowledges Eckert’s leadership and ongoing commitment to shaping the development of generations of children, inspiring creativity and innovation and for demonstrating what's possible through a world of play, Mattel reported.

The March issue of Fortune contains the magazine’s annual ranking of the most admired companies, and this year’s list shows Target ranked 22nd. Only Walmart (11) and Nordstrom (21) were ranked ahead of the company. Other notable retailers on the list who ranked lower than Target included Costco (29), Best Buy (36), eBay (45) and Lowe’s (49).

New York City -- The District of Columbia came out on top on The U.S. Green Building Council’s 2010 list of Top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita, based on the U.S. 2010 Census information. The district had 25 sq. ft. of LEED-certified space per person in 2010, followed by Nevada, with 10.92 sq. ft. per person in 2010.

The top LEED states per capita, including the District of Columbia: 

Former IBM engineers Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver are among this year’s inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

The duo is credited with developing the first optically-scanned bar code after overhearing a conversation in which a food executive expressed a desire to capture more product information at checkout.

The March issue of Fortune contains the magazine’s annual ranking of the most admired companies and this year’s list shows Walmart slipped two spots from the prior year and now occupies the 11 position.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Overstock.com announced that it won two 2011 Stevie Awards for sales and customer service, in the following categories -- Customer Service Department of the Year, Retail and Sales Department of the Year, All Other Industries.

Now in its fifth year, the Stevie Awards selected winners in 40 award categories honoring achievements, individuals, teams and departments by industry in the sales field and 25 award categories honoring individuals, team and departments by industry in the customer service/contact center awards field.

The National Governors Association named Walmart the recipient of its annual Public-Private Partnership Award at the closing of its 2011 Winter Meeting. The award is now in its fifth year and honors companies that have partnered with a governor's office to implement a program or project that positively affects the state's citizens. Walmart was nominated by Arkansas Gov.

NEW YORK -- Marc Forgione is the latest chef to join Macy's Culinary Council, the company announced. According to Macy's, the council is "a team of talented and distinguished chefs who serve to inspire the way Macy's customers shop, cook and eat at home.

Forgione, who was recently crowned season three winner of Food Network's TheNext Iron Chef, will kick-off his new position on Macy's Culinary Council with an in-store cooking demonstration at Macy's Chicago on State Street on March 8 at noon.