Business Objects Appoints Ian Gray to Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources

Business Wire, March 29, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 29, 2000

Business Objects (NASDAQ:BOBJ), the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, today announced that it has appointed Ian Gray to the position of vice president, worldwide human resources.

In this newly created position, Gray is responsible for leading Business Objects global efforts to attract, develop, and retain employees. He will report directly to Bernard Liautaud, Business Objects president and CEO. Today, Business Objects has more than 1300 employees worldwide.

"I am very pleased to have Ian join Business Objects and lead our worldwide human resources team," said Bernard Liautaud. "He brings a great amount of international and high-tech experience to this position. Our company is experiencing a strong wave of employee growth in order to serve the market demand for our e-business intelligence software, and Ian is the ideal person to help us meet our aggressive human resources goals."

Gray has more than 20 years experience in human resources management in both Europe and the United States. Prior to joining Business Objects, Gray was the vice president of human resources at CellNet Data Systems in San Carlos, Calif. He has also held human resources director positions for Raychem (Menlo Park, Calif. and Swindon, England) and Allied Colloids Group Plc. in Bradford, England.

"Business Objects is a well-established company that is in the stage of its development where it's critical to the people and organization to achieve an ever higher level of growth," said Gray. "I'm excited to join Business Objects at this important time. I look forward to further developing human resource services that promote both individual and business success."

About Business Objects

Business Objects is the world's leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions. The company coined the term e-business intelligence in 1998 to describe the intersection of business intelligence and the internet. Using e-business intelligence, organizations can access, analyze, and share information in intranet, extranet, and e-business environments. In intranets, the company's products provide employees with information to make better business decisions, and are used in environments ranging from workgroups of 20 users to enterprise deployments exceeding 20,000. In the extranet environment, the company is pioneering the use of e-BI in applications that allow organizations to build stronger relationships by linking customers, partners, and suppliers via the internet. In addition, the company's products can improve the performance of an e-business by providing reporting and analysis against the ever-expanding amount of transaction and profile data that is collected each day throughout the world wide web.

Founded in 1990, Business Objects pioneered the modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a "semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of database systems. Today, the company has sold more than 1,683,000 licenses to 9,700 organizations in more than 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Paris Bourse: SICOVAM 12074. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

BusinessObjects is a trademark of Business Objects SA. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

A full-text copy of this announcement may be obtained by calling the Company's fax retrieval line at 800-414-2114 and selecting option "two." The announcement may also be downloaded from the web; access "http://www.businesswire.com/cnn" and search on "Business Objects." Business Objects product inquiries should contact 800-527-0580.