@Stake Announces Appointment of Chief Financial Officer, Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales.

Business & Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, MA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2000

Executives from Castle Harlan, Digital Equipment Corporation and

Sapient Join @Stake

@Stake, the leading Internet security professional services firm providing strategy, architecture and operational support for the e-commerce capabilities of global clients, today announced the addition of three new executives. Jeffrey M. Siegal has been appointed chief financial officer of @Stake and Christina Luconi joins @Stake as its chief people officer. In addition, Peter Borbely has been selected as the company's executive vice president of worldwide sales. These appointments are effective immediately.

"The hardest thing to achieve in the professional services business is scale," commented Chris Darby, CEO of @Stake. "In their respective areas, these individuals bring a proven ability to build the infrastructure required to rapidly grow a professional services organization. The world-class financial, people, and sales processes this team is implementing will be key to continuing our aggressive growth."

Jeffrey M. Siegal brings a full range of experience in financial and strategic analysis and capital raising within the full private and public sectors. @Stake's CFO was formerly at Castle Harlan, Inc., a leading private merchant bank where he was senior managing director. He was actively involved in sourcing and leading transactions for Castle Harlan's buyout funds, and the acquisition and sale of numerous companies including INDSPEC Chemical Corporation, an investment with an internal rate of return of 98%. He also conducted extensive fund raising activities for Castle Harlan's buyout funds and capital markets for several portfolio companies. In addition, Mr. Siegal served as director of Universal Compression and Verdugt Holding, LLC. Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Siegal held the rank of captain and program manager in the Air Force Systems Command of the US Air Force where he helped lead one of the largest command, control and communications modernization programs in the Department of Defense. Through this program, reviewed directly by the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Siegal interfaced with senior military officials from all branches of the armed forces and all major agencies involved with the National Command Authorities.

Christina Luconi joins @Stake's executive team as its chief people officer, providing the vision and strategy for all of @Stake's people-focused initiatives. Ms. Luconi began working with @Stake prior to the company's launch in January 2000, as a consultant with People Innovations. Ms. Luconi was the founder and owner of People Innovations, a strategic human resources firm dedicated to forward thinking start-ups in the high tech and Internet sectors. Previously, Ms. Luconi was the vice president of the People Strategy Organization at Sapient Corporation, where she built Sapient's human resource infrastructure from the ground up and played a critical role as part of the senior management team. Ms. Luconi joined Sapient after her tenure at CSC Index, the firm responsible for developing "re-engineering," a concept that ignited the business world in the early `90's. As a recognized thought leader in the field of human resources, she has already had a significant impact on @Stake's expansion, identifying and recruiting over 40 people in the last several months including senior executive positions.

Bolstering @Stake's top-notch business professionals, Peter Borbely will oversee the sales efforts and will be instrumental in the company's robust expansion plans including the opening of new offices in New York and Denver. Last week @Stake announced the opening of offices in Research Triangle Park, San Francisco and Seattle. Mr. Borbely was most recently the chief operating officer and executive vice president at Interpath, a full-service ASP offering a broad range of managed application and consulting services. He brings over 25 years of high tech experience to @Stake, having previously worked at Digital Equipment Corporation at the executive management level, where he successfully crafted and implemented new market development strategies and set corporate milestones in market share.

About @Stake:

Established earlier this year with funding from Battery Ventures, @Stake is led by former executives from premier organizations including Compaq Computer, Digital Equipment Corporation, Forrester Research and the L0pht. @Stake offers a full range of security services enabling e-commerce for Global 2000 clients and specializes in three practice areas: e-markets, financial services and telecommunications. @Stake has offices in Research Triangle Park (NC), San Francisco and Seattle and services clients such as Bertlesmann mediaSystems, Exodus Communications, Inc. and eSprocket. The company focuses on planning next-generation security environments that support long-term e-commerce objectives as well as securing clients' immediate Internet needs. Key to the company's strategic approach is building comprehensive security architectures to minimize the impact of viruses, malicious attacks and other threats while maximizing opportunity and competitiveness for firms engaged in the Internet economy. More information can be found at www.atstake.com @Stake, Inc. - Securing the Internet Economy(SM).