OpenLink Named Risk Management Innovator of the Year

Business Wire, Dec 5, 2007

OpenLink Chosen as the Inaugural winner of this Prestigious Award by Platts at their annual Global Energy Award's Ceremony

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- OpenLink (www.olf.com), a leading provider of cross asset trading, risk management and operations processing software solutions - announced today that Platts, a leading global provider of energy and commodities information, has named OpenLink Risk Management Innovator of The Year. Established almost a decade ago, Platts Global Energy Awards recognizes the excellence and innovation by companies and executives in more than a dozen sectors within the global energy industry.

This year, Platts added a new category, Risk Management Innovator of the Year, which acknowledges the enormous growth in the risk management sector of the energy industry. It was decided that this award was to go to a company or risk management department that has made the most significant innovative contribution to the science of risk management or the portfolio of tools available to today's risk professional. Inventors of new financial instruments, new strategies, new algorithms and new software applications were all eligible.

The judging panel was comprised of impartial, international energy experts, including energy ministers, past and present heads of major energy companies, and leading academics and legislators. The judges evaluated the entrants and selected the finalists and winners based on the criteria listed in each category, taking into consideration where appropriate company profiles and financial performance in the designated time-frame. Platts CEO Victoria Chu Pao commented, "Platts is pleased to award the Risk Management Innovator of the Year to OpenLink. Our judges' panel of industry experts deliberated at length, establishing a set of finalists - and finally chose OpenLink for this important category."

OpenLink's risk products were recognized for their depth of functionality, ease of use, and risk modeling from financial trading through physical delivery. The judges cited OpenLink's in-depth capability to handle the multi-dimensional qualities of the energy markets: volatility, the unique risks associated with physical delivery, cross-asset complexity and all the related risks in the foreign exchange, credit and interest rate arenas.

Kevin Hesselbirg, CEO of OpenLink, noted "Receiving Platts inaugural Risk Management Innovator of the Year award is a testament to not only our recent product innovations, like RiskPak and Risk Dashboard, but our continued commitment to research and development of risk management and analytic tools for the energy industry which has been a core vision of OpenLink for more than a decade. We are honored to accept this award on behalf of the many contributors to risk management innovation in the industry, including all our clients who challenge our industry leading team to continually raise the bar."

Additionally, Ken Knowles, Global Head of Risk Management and Analytics at OpenLink, said of their win "We appreciate the recognition for our efforts to deliver sophisticated risk analysis, reporting, and visualization tools that leverage OpenLink's cross-asset trading and risk architecture."

About Platts

Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading global provider of energy and commodities information. With nearly a century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. From 14 offices worldwide, Platts serves the oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear power, coal, petrochemical, emissions, and metals markets. Platts' real time news, pricing, analytical services, and conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon Platts to help them make better trading and investment decisions. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.

About OpenLink

Founded in 1992, OpenLink is a leading developer of cross-asset trading, risk management, and operations processing software solutions. The company's Next Generation eXtensible (NGX) platform supports the most rigorous business requirements of firms trading in virtually all asset classes including crude products, natural gas, electricity, weather derivatives, emissions credits, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives, hybrid/structured products, fixed income securities, foreign exchange, money markets, metals, soft, and other commodities. OpenLink's global client base includes 120 clients such as Austin Energy, APC Austrian Power Vertriebs GmbH, Bank of America, Bridgeline Holdings, BKW FMB Energie AG, Calyon, Coral Energy, Citigroup Global Market, Inc., D-Energia Kft., Deutsche Bank, EDF Energy plc, Enbridge, Energy Transfer Partners, HESS Corporation, Nexen, NEW Energie GmbH, Shell, Statoil, and Vattenfall Europe Trading. Headquartered in Long Island, New York, and with offices in London, Houston, New York City, Berlin, Vienna, Sydney, and Sao Paulo, OpenLink employs more than 550 professionals worldwide.