.NAME Operator Appoints CEO to Develop the Personal Domain Space and Promote Digital Identity.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2001

Andrew Tsai, former President of Urbanfetch Ltd., joins Global

Name Registry Ltd., registry operator of .NAME, the first

top-level domain exclusively for individuals

Global Name Registry Ltd. (GNR), a technology infrastructure company based in London, announced today the appointment of its new chief executive officer, Andrew K. Tsai, formerly president of Urbanfetch Ltd. Mr. Tsai has responsibility for all operations related to running the new .NAME top-level domain registry, expected to launch later this year, which will expand the domain name space beyond .COM, .NET, and .ORG introduced in the 1980s.

GNR recently won an exclusive license from the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to develop, administer and market the new .NAME top-level domain (TLD), the only TLD reserved exclusively for individuals. Other new TLDs to be launched later this year include .BIZ, .INFO, and .PRO. The domain-name industry is a US$2-3 billion industry and, with the introduction of new TLDs, more than 75 million addresses are expected to be registered by 2003.

"I am thrilled to be involved with an organisation which is uniquely placed to become the leading global naming system for digital identity services," said Mr. Tsai. "The intersection of security, storage, transactions, and communication will ultimately require a naming system that is directly linked to individuals only. We believe that a person's name is the easiest and most attractive solution."

Mr. Tsai was recruited by GNR because of his proven track record in establishing and running companies in the Internet and e-business fields. "We are delighted to have someone of Andrew's calibre lead GNR as we ramp up and prepare for the launch of .NAME in a very short period of time. Andrew has a keen sense of how to build an operation without sacrificing integrity," said Hakon Haugnes, vice president of GNR.

In addition to providing domain-name services through a resale network of nearly 80 ICANN-accredited registrars around the globe and thousands of after-market resellers, GNR will offer email services in the form of "[e-mail]." Domain names will be registered on the third-level, as opposed to the second-level, e.g., www.firstname.lastname.name, to exponentially increase the number of domain names that can be used by people who share a common last name.

.NAME was conceived to fulfil a global need for unique personal identity on the Internet. Through innovative and secure technology, GNR will endeavor to transform the .NAME top-level domain into a digital repository of information for everyday use by family, friends, business associates, and service providers. "Eventually, we look forward to the day when a .NAME address can be used as your web site and email address, cell phone number, storage for personal information, and digital key for e-commerce transactions," said Mr. Tsai. GNR is in discussion with several large technology partners to position .NAME in the middle of this evolution.

Global Name Registry Ltd.

Founded in December 1999 to offer personalized communication services through its Nameplanet.com subsidiary, the company turned its attention to the domain-name registry business when it was selected by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in November 2000 to develop, administer and market .NAME, the only top-level domain reserved exclusively for individuals. The company is finalizing its operating agreement with ICANN and expects to launch its domain-name and email services later this year. A privately-held company, GNR received first-round financing from Carlyle Europe Venture Partners, L.P., Northzone Ventures AS, and Four Seasons Venture AS. With extensive experience in technology infrastructure, networking, e-commerce, and security, GNR is well placed to develop the personal domain space. The company intends to create a platform for digital identity services using the .NAME top-level domain as a global standard.

.NAME Roll-Out

Sunrise period: 45 days after GNR's agreement with ICANN is signed, GNR will offer legitimate trademark holders the right to remove their names from the domain-name system.

Landrush period: 60 days after signature, GNR will take batch requests from ICANN-accredited registrars and allocate names through a random process. This period should last 2-3 months and offer 5-10 different landrush cycles. During this period, second-level domain email forwarding service will begin.

Live Shared Registry Service: No more than 180 days after signature, GNR will accept orders from consumers directly through ICANN-accredited registrars.

For more information, please visit www.theglobalname.org.

Andrew K. Tsai

Prior to joining GNR, Mr. Tsai served as president and director of Urbanfetch.com Ltd., where he was responsible for the international operations of an Internet rapid fulfilment company, including operations, technology, sales and marketing, business and product development, and finance and commercial. He built and managed a team of 140 employees that launched operations in the UK within 4 months of inception and within 10 months had won the annual European Ecommerce Association's "Most Exciting Newcomer" award. Mr. Tsai played a critical role in raising $67 million through Series A-D private financing. During this time, Urbanfetch received Business Week's 1999 Best New Product Award.

Mr. Tsai's extensive experience in investment banking includes serving as Principal and Chief Investment Officer of Integrity Capital Management, L.L.C, a hedge fund that grew from $70 million under management to a peak of $300 million with assets of over $5 billion. Previously, Mr. Tsai was a vice president with Lehman Brothers, Inc. in New York and London, where he was head of the German government fixed-income trading desk.

Mr. Tsai holds a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in finance and entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.