Ampad Names Donald Meltzer as President and CEO.

RICHARDSON, Texas -- American Pad & Paper LLC ("Ampad"), a premier manufacturer and distributor of writing pads, filing supplies, retail envelopes and specialty papers, today announced the appointment of Donald Meltzer as President and CEO effective immediately. Mr. Meltzer replaces John Bermingham who has headed the company since its acquisition by an investment group led by Arcapita in August 2003.

Stockton Croft, Director of Arcapita, Ampad's majority owner, commented, "We appreciate the many contributions that John Bermingham has made to Ampad over the past two years. While we regret his decision to resign for personal reasons, we are pleased that our executive search has allowed us to find a leader of Donald Meltzer's caliber to continue to move the company forward."

Mr. Meltzer comes to Ampad with an impressive track record of transforming businesses through customer-centered strategies. He joins the company most recently from Johns Manville where he served as Vice President and General Manager of the $600 million Roofing Systems Group. Prior to that, he was the Executive Vice President and COO of Clore Automotive, establishing Clore as the market leader in its key product segment. Mr. Meltzer was key to similar business accomplishments when he served as Vice President and General Manager of Ingersoll-Dresser Pump Co, North American Products & Services and as Director of Operations and Finance of AlliedSignal Inc. (now Honeywell), Carbon Materials & Technologies.

Mr. Meltzer holds a BA in Business from the State University of New York, and an MBA in Management from New York Institute of Technology.

About Ampad

Ampad is a premier manufacturer and distributor of writing pads, filing supplies, retail envelopes and specialty papers that serves many of the largest and fastest growing office products retailers and distributors in North America. Additional information on Ampad can be found at www.ampad.com.