Akonix Appoints New VP to Drive Marketing for Instant Messaging Security Solutions; Brings More Than 20 Years of Sales & Marketing Experience, Specializing in Rapid Growth Businesses.

SAN DIEGO -- Akonix Systems, Inc., the premier provider of enterprise-class solutions for ensuring security, compliance and management of enterprise instant messaging (IM) use, has hired Don Montgomery as vice president of marketing.

Montgomery is responsible for planning and executing all aspects of Akonix's corporate and product marketing initiatives worldwide. He will focus on developing new strategies to address the growing and dynamic IM management and security industry. In this transition, previous chief marketing officer, Francis Costello, has been promoted to chief technology officer.

Prior to joining Akonix, Montgomery served as director of marketing at Unisys Corporation, where he launched Unisys Business Intelligence and established the global company as an industry leader in large-scale analytics and data warehousing solutions. Montgomery also brings previous messaging industry experience, working at United Messaging, Inc., a fast-growing provider of outsourced Microsoft, Lotus and iPlanet email, secure enterprise IM and wireless Blackberry services.

"Corporations and public agencies have spent billions of dollars securing their networks and email systems, yet many don't realize the huge security and compliance gaps that remain open because of their employees' use of public and private instant messaging services," said Montgomery. "I'm thrilled to be taking on the challenge of marketing our solutions to those problems, and to be leading a top-notch team as we continue to drive the third wave of security appliances and IM management solutions."

"Don brings a solid background backed by years of expertise in driving high-growth information technology businesses," said Peter Shaw, CEO of Akonix. "The addition of Don to our marketing team will enable us to extend our global reach and strategically build out our brand across new regions. We've recently witnessed significant growth in the IM security and management industry, and Akonix anticipates even greater demand in the coming years. With Don onboard, we are in a prime position to capture that market."

Earlier in his career, Montgomery held senior marketing, sales and operations management positions at Bell Atlantic Network Integration, Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services and Digital Equipment Corporation. Throughout his career, the products and services that he has launched, created or sold have created over $3 billion in revenues.

As a thought leader in the IT industry, Montgomery is a frequent speaker at industry and partner events, including the Gartner Business Intelligence Conference, the Bell Atlantic Executive Conference, Ferris Research's Email Outsourcing Conference and others. He holds a B.S. degree in Management Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with graduate and undergraduate studies at the Lesley College School of Management and College of the Holy Cross.

About Akonix

Akonix is the instant messaging (IM) security and management pioneer, enabling Global 1000 companies to deploy productive, enterprise-wide IM that is secure, compliant and managed.

Nearly one million global users across hundreds of organizations in the Financial Services, Telecommunications, Energy, Technology, Healthcare and Entertainment industries use Akonix solutions. Leveraging more than 20 patents, Akonix's award-winning products provide the industry's only automatically-updated protection to block real-time viruses for both enterprise and public IM systems. Akonix has certified partnerships with all leading IM and presence providers including America Online(R), Microsoft, Yahoo!, Reuters, IBM, Parlano and Bloomberg.

An IM industry first, the Akonix Security Center (www.imsecuritycenter.com) provides real-time information about worms, viruses and other vulnerabilities that target IM and P2P networks. The company issues monthly and quarterly IM threat watch reports to track key trends and vulnerabilities.

For further information on the company, please visit www.akonix.com.