Jordan, Edmiston Names 30-Year Publishing Industry Veteran to the New Position of Vice President Business Development and Client Services

Business Wire, Jan 29, 2001

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 2001

The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), the New York City-based investment bank dedicated to serving companies in the publishing, information, Internet and conference and exposition media industries, announced today that Charles A. Richard has joined the firm's team of investment banking professionals.

Chuck Richard, 53, vice president business development and client services, has a 30-year track record and was formerly vice president of strategic planning for Cahners Business Information, Inc., the billion dollar business-to-business information company. Mr. Richard completed 31 mergers and acquisitions for Cahners valued at more than $1 billion, negotiating both the deal structure and the terms of the purchase and sale agreements. His additional responsibilities included evaluating the attractiveness of different business-to-business markets, reviewing portfolios, and establishing new business development investment priorities.

The depth and breadth of Mr. Richard's client-side perspective makes him intuitively sensitive to the needs of both buyers and sellers. At Cahners, and also LEXIS-NEXIS, where he developed multi-year acquisition and alliance programs to implement the company's strategic goals, he reviewed over 300 publishing, information, Internet and conference and exposition acquisitions and partnership proposals. "I've been on both sides of all sizes of M&A transactions," said Mr. Richard. "Buyers and sellers who want to maximize value look for investment banking advisors that combine integrity with an efficient maximization of value process that is personally managed by senior-level people who are plugged into the business. Those are also qualities that attracted me to Jordan Edmiston."

According to Wilma H. Jordan, CEO and founder of The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., "We've added rare talent to our management team. When we first met Chuck at Cahners Business Information in 1997, we were advising the company on the sale of its Computer Group trade magazines and tradeshows to The Washington Post. Even then, it was clear that we shared the same vision and goals in servicing clients. Chuck's depth of knowledge in the business-to-business publishing and information arenas will help JEGI to further enhance its relationships with companies in these sectors."

Prior to his position with LEXIS-NEXIS, Mr. Richard led the quantitative business-consulting group for Mead Corporation, the $4 billion forest products and school supplies company as decision analysis manager. He led a group that completed over 200 consulting projects company-wide. Previously, Mr. Richard served as operations research manager for International Paper Company (IPC). At IPC, he created and implemented optimal timber allocation and product mix for the company's $250 million Wood Products Division generating $10 million of incremental annual margin for all solid wood products operations.

His professional affiliations include the American Business Media (ABM), Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), Operations Research Society of America and The Institute of Management Science (ORSA/TIMS), since renamed INFORMS, Institute of Business Forecasting (IBF) and Xi Sigma Pi (Forestry Honor Society).

Mr. Richard holds a PhD in Quantitative Business Analysis and a master of Forest Resources from the University of Washington where he received a full-year Weyerhaeuser fellowship. Mr. Richard participated in the master of Liberal Arts and Bachelor of Civil Engineering programs at John Hopkins University Baltimore, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland.

Mr. Richard is fluent in Portuguese, having lived and worked in Brazil.

About The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. and JEGI Capital LLC

Jordan Edmiston is the premier investment bank dedicated to serving companies in the publishing, information, exposition and Internet industries. In 2001, the firm completed 21 publishing, information, Internet and conference and exposition media industry M&A transactions with a aggregate dollar value of nearly $1 billion. Founded in 1988, the investment bank regularly advises leading diversified media companies, including Daily Mail and General Trust, Dow Jones, The Hearst Corporation, Pearson, PRIMEDIA, Reader's Digest, Reed Elsevier and VNU as well as entrepreneurial media businesses, including Duke Communications, Sussex Publishers, First Conferences and Thunder Lizard Productions. JEGI Capital, the venture capital affiliate of Jordan Edmiston invests in early-stage Internet, digital communications and e-commerce companies that impact traditional media and market communications industries. For more information about JEGI, please visit www.jegi.com or contact us at 212.754.0710.