Riverfort Regulatory News (RGO)

26 Jun 2007 07:01

Caldwell Investments PLC26 June 2007 RELEASED ON BEHALF OF:CALDWELL INVESTMENTS PLC JUNE 25, 2007 APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE Former McKinsey & Co associate partner Fernando Cesar Lunardini, aged 37, hasbeen appointed Chief Executive of AIM-listed Caldwell Investments Plc ("Caldwell" or "the Company") with effect from 22 June 2007. Caldwell recently announcedits intention to establish a biodiesel operation, producing and exporting crudeoil from jatropha plantations in Brazil. The Company has put a proposal toshareholders to change its name to VIRIDAS PLC at its annual meeting on 27thJuly 2007. Mr Lunardini spent eight years of his career at McKinsey & Co, and waspreviously at Gemini Consulting and Andersen Consulting. He holds an MBA fromINSEAD and gained a BSc in Metallurgical Engineering in Brazil. Whilst withMcKinsey, he spent many years building strategies for major multinationalcompanies in South America and in the USA, and led a year-long transformationprogramme for a large South American fertilizer company defining its strategicgrowth path. Since leaving McKinsey in 2006, he has become involved ineco-related business developments in Brazil in the carbon and ethanol markets.Speaking five languages, Mr. Lunardini, has contributed to the McKinseyQuarterly and Harvard Business Review LA. Mr Lunardini is also a director of Panozon Ambiental Ltda, a water treatmentcompany. Save for the above, there is no further information required to be disclosedunder paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules. Stanley Wootliff, Caldwell's Chairman, said: "Fernando has many years'consultancy experience and he and his team have prepared a detailed plan for theproduction of crude jatropha oil. Caldwell intends to control all aspects ofproduction from developing the right varieties of jatropha plant, managing theplanting, the picking and the crushing operation. We have already selected flatand fertile sites in Brazil for the mechanical planting of 200,000 jatrophatrees with the ultimate target of 100 million trees being grown on 33sq kms ofland. We are fortunate in bringing on-board a man with the appropriatebackground and relevant industry contacts." Mr. Lunardini said "I am very pleased to be in at the birth of a new growthindustry. Brazil is the right place to be, jatropha the right plant forbiodiesel and we have assembled the right expertise to make the projectsuccessful." Further information: STANLEY WOOTLIFF, Executive Chairman, Caldwell Investments 0113 2350632 JOANNE LAKE, Evolution Securities Limited 0113 243 1619 RON MARSHMAN, City of London PR Limited 020 7628 5518 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange