ARTA.L Regulatory News (ARTA)

24 May 2007 07:02

Artilium PLC24 May 2007 Embargoed for 7.00am, Thursday 24 May 2007 Artilium PLC ("Artilium" or the "Company") Non-Executive Appointments Strengthen Artilium Board Artilium plc (LSE: ARTA), a specialist in convergence technology that seamlesslyintegrates disparate fixed, mobile and IP networks to enable the rapiddeployment of converged services and applications, is pleased to announce theappointments of two Non-Executive Directors which significantly strengthen theCompany's Board. Richard Hooper, 68, joins Artilium as Non-Executive Director after a long anddistinguished career in the communications industry. From 2002 until 2005Richard was founding Deputy Chairman of the UK's Office of Communications(Ofcom) and served prior to that as Chairman of the Radio Authority. Richardhas devoted his career to the convergent world of media and communications,having been a radio and television producer at the BBC; Chief Executive Officerof the Value Added Systems & Services division of British Telecom; and ChiefExecutive Officer of the satellite channel, Super Channel Limited. Mr Hooper isalso a partner of Hooper Communications. Richard is currently a Non-Executive Director of Yell Group plc and of i-mateplc. He recently stepped down as Chairman of the £2.5 billion specialistinformation provider, Informa plc, following nine years of service on the Board.Since 1988 his career has combined board positions across the public andprivate sector. Other directorships in the past five years include IMS Group plcand UK e-Universities Worldwide Limited. Also joining the Board is Michael Hulme, 50. Michael is Honorary Professor andAssociate Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Lancaster Universitywhere he is a member of the Lancaster University Development Board. He is aFellow of the UK's Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Market ResearchSociety. Michael is Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Technology andCulture, a social insight consultancy and director of the Social FuturesObservatory, an independent think-tank closely associated with the Institute forAdvanced Studies. His involvements outside social research include chairing apublic-private special investment partnership providing seed and growth fundingto small and medium businesses. Michael's career began in corporate finance before moving into marketing andthen strategy in the computer industry, becoming Head of Strategic Marketing forone of Europe's then largest financial services software houses. Both Richard and Michael join the Board with immediate effect. Commenting on the appointments, Paul Gratton, Executive Chairman, said: "We are delighted to welcome two such high calibre individuals to the Board aswe begin on the next stage of the development of the business. Our compellingproposition has enabled us to strengthen our Board and senior management teamswith individuals who have many years experience with leading companies in thetechnology and telecoms space and an in-depth understanding of emergingopportunities around convergence. "In addition to the Non-Executives appointed today, we have in recent monthsbeen delighted to welcome our new Chief Executive, Robert Marcus who joined fromMicrosoft where he spent nine years, most recently as a member of the company'sM&A team. Gytis Barzdukas also joined the executive team as VP Sales andMarketing, after a 12-year career at Microsoft where he most recently ledcommunications services strategy engagement with the world's majortelecommunications companies for the Windows Live Platform (including Messengerand Hotmail)." Commenting on his first two months with the Company, Artilium Chief Executive,Robert Marcus, said: "Since joining the Company as Chief Executive on 21 March 2007, I completed apreliminary review of our business and have been encouraged to find we are evenbetter positioned than we had initially thought to leverage opportunities forgrowth. "Artilium has proven technology with more than 40 installations since itsinception that serve tens of millions of end-users. Moving forward, I amconfident of our ability to successfully accelerate our expansion globally,delivering a solution to address industry fragmentation and serve the needs ofproviders seeking to add bundled mobile, fixed or IP-based services. Theopportunities for growth are certainly there and we have the right leadershipteam to pursue them aggressively, in markets where first-mover advantage remainsa key factor of success." Concurrent to an announcement yesterday, Artilium plc is the new name for FutureInternet Technologies plc. This change in name follows the approval of aresolution tabled yesterday at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company'sshareholders. Further director details: Further information on Richard and Michael is set out below. Other than theinformation contained in this announcement, there are no other details to bedisclosed in accordance with the AIM Rules. Richard Hooper Mr Hooper resigned as a Director of Superchannel Limited in June 1988 on achange of control of the company. On 22 November 1988, Superchannel Limited wasput into administration. Mr Hooper was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of IMS Group plc ("IMS") on5 August 1997. On 7 February 2002, IMS was put into administration. On 14 May2004, the administration was discharged and IMS was put into compulsoryliquidation. Mr Hooper resigned his directorship on 26 March 2002. Mr Hooper was appointed as Non-Executive Director of UK e-Universities WorldwideLimited ("Worldwide") on 1 January 2002 and resigned on 27 February 2004. On 30June 2005 the creditors and members of Worldwide approved a company voluntaryarrangement. Michael Keith Hulme Current directorships: CSMTC Ventures Limited, Merseyside Special Investment Fund, C.S.M.T.C. Limited,Knowledge Interventuring Limited, Intersperience Limited, Intersperience GroupLimited, CSMTC Applied Knowledge Limited, Teleconomy Consultancy Limited, SocialFutures Observatory Limited, Teleconomy Research Limited Previous directorships within the last five years: HowWhenandWhy.com Limited, Bridge Across the Bay Limited, Furness West CumbriaNew Vision Urban Regeneration Company Limited, E Director PLC About Artilium Artilium (LSE/AIM: ARTA) delivers innovative software solutions which layerseamlessly over disparate fixed, mobile and IP networks to enable the rapiddeployment of converged services and applications. Founded in 1995 and recognized for its engineering talent and unique combinationof IT and telecom expertise, Artilium has completed more than 40 installationsserving tens of millions of end-users in 11 countries. Customers include Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Mobile Virtual NetworkEnablers (MVNEs), Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), Fixed andalternative operators, Hosting Providers, Systems Integrators and ManagedService Providers. Artilium is now expanding its leadership in telecom and unified communicationsplatforms on a global scale. Artilium is headquartered in London, England with offices in Bruges, Belgium andSeattle in the USA. Artilium plc is a publicly listed company with AIM on theLondon Stock Exchange (LSE/AIM: ARTA). For more information, please visit:www.artilium.com Enquiries: Financial Dynamics Tel: 020 7831 3113Harriet Keen/Matt Dixon This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange