Washington, D.C. - The Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement is pleased to announce that United Airlines has joined as its latest Founding Partner and Exclusive Airline Sponsor. The Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement, United Airlines and Meridian believe that by connecting people across borders, we can help unite the world.
“Meridian is a vital bridge between Washington’s diplomatic community and U.S. government leaders,” said Theresa Fariello, United’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Global Public Policy. “As a leading airline with a large and growing international hub in the Washington region, we are excited to serve in facilitating dialogue and collaboration on today’s global economic and security challenges.”
One area of focus for the partnership will be environmental sustainability, where United has been a long-standing leader among global airlines. United’s award-winning Eco-Skies program strives to minimize environmental impacts associated with its operations and continuously look for ways to reduce its carbon footprint. This led to United making a bold and industry-leading commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2050.
United Airlines is also a member of Meridian’s Corporate Council and served as the Corporate Chair of Meridian’s 2018 Meridian Ball and Global Leadership Summit.
Since the Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement launched in October 2018, more than 400 international diplomats from 121 embassies have participated in its programming.
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The Meridian Center for Diplomatic Engagement serves as a bridge between the diplomatic community and the U.S. public and private sector to connect in intimate settings with top officials and policymakers, dive deeply into critical global issues, understand how Washington works, and strengthen peer-to-peer relationships. It is a hub for policy symposia, briefings with senior Administration officials and Members of Congress, salon dinners and workshops.
United's shared purpose is "Connecting People. Uniting the World." We are more focused than ever on our commitment to customers through a series of innovations and improvements designed to help build a great experience: Every customer. Every flight. Every day. Together, United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,900 flights a day to 355 airports across five continents. In 2018, United and United Express operated more than 1.7 million flights carrying more than 158 million customers. United is proud to have the world's most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 779 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 569 regional aircraft. United is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 193 countries via 28 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter and Instagram or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United's parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol "UAL".
Meridian International Center is a public diplomacy and global leadership institution that strengthens U.S. engagement with the world through the exchange of leaders, culture and ideas. Founded 60 years ago as a non-partisan, non-profit organization, Meridian works with governments, the private sector and the diplomatic community to develop exchange, training, culture and convening programs to help leaders better address the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly globalized society.
