Aperian Adds Senior Executives From Oracle, Concert and GTE to Drive Continued Expansion.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2000

Aperian (Nasdaq:APRN), a leader in providing scalable bandwidth and managed services for content-intensive e-businesses, today announced the addition of four executives to its senior management team.

Chris Brickler has joined Aperian as executive vice president of marketing and business development; Wayne A. Irwin has joined as executive vice president of sales and business operations; Marsha Cameron has joined as executive vice president of administration; and James P. Bates has joined as chief information officer. All four executives report to Robert J. Gibbs, Aperian president and chief executive officer.

"Chris, Wayne, Marsha and Jim bring tremendous talent and seasoned leadership to the table. As we embark on the next era of growth and development at Aperian, we are very fortunate to benefit from their wide-ranging expertise," said Gibbs.

In his position as executive vice president of marketing and business development, Brickler will direct global strategy, branding and strategic alliances, as well as the deployment of Aperian's application infrastructure platform. Most recently, Brickler was vice president of marketing and Internet operations for Concert, the $8 billion joint venture between AT&T and British Telecommunications (BT) targeted at multi-national finance, high-tech, petroleum and manufacturing companies.

Brickler was responsible for managing Concert's Internet services and applications portfolio, leveraging the products of AT&T, BT and several new Internet alliances that his team created. Previously, Brickler was vice president of marketing for BT Global Business Markets and was an integral member of the initial Concert build team with AT&T. Prior to that, he spent five years at GTE in several key product management, sales management and business development roles, helping to create GTE's Internet services portfolio.

In his role as executive vice president of sales and business operations, Irwin will focus on implementing national market strategies and building Aperian's customer base by establishing an end-to-end customer satisfaction process. Before joining Aperian, he spent 17 years at GTE Telephone Operations, most recently as assistant vice president of GTE Web Commerce where he managed the rollout of GTE's e-business strategy.

Under his leadership, gte.com emerged as a strong customer-focused site, allowing for flexible and dynamic communication. Irwin also held senior management positions in operations at GTE, including roles in channel strategy and carrier markets, which showcased his proven ability to integrate markets and develop comprehensive distribution strategies.

Cameron brings more than 20 years of experience in organizational strategy to Aperian. In her role as executive vice president of administration, she is responsible for human resources, corporate communications, organizational planning, and merger and professional services integration. Previously, Cameron served as vice president of workforce effectiveness for GTE Corporation, where she led overall human resources planning for the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger.

In addition, she directed innovative programs to link pay, performance and business objectives, and was part of the core team responsible for the BBN acquisition. Cameron has also served as worldwide practice director of compensation consulting for Watson Wyatt, and as a principal and practice leader at Towers Perrin. She is chairperson of the Direct Compensation Board for the American Compensation Association.

As Aperian's chief information officer (CIO), Bates will be responsible for managing the company's technology infrastructure, quality assurance programs, and research and development. Bates, who has more than 20 years of IT experience, joins Aperian from Oracle Corporation, where he established and directed an IT consulting practice to offer enterprise-wide services on a global scale.

At Oracle, he specialized in moving companies to Internet-based procurement processes and implementing software application solutions. Previously, Bates was CIO for Vari-Lite Inc. where he successfully led its IT organization through a period of rapid growth, multiple acquisitions and a $27 million initial public offering.

"Together with the rest of our team, Chris, Wayne, Marsha and Jim will play a vital role in establishing Aperian as the premier provider of scalable bandwidth and managed infrastructure services," said Gibbs.

About Aperian

Aperian (Nasdaq:APRN) supplies Internet infrastructure and bandwidth for the delivery of content-intensive applications. Through strategic alliances with GTE (NYSE:GTE) and MCI WorldCom (Nasdaq:WCOM), Aperian offers advanced, second-generation solutions to customers in data centers that sit directly on the Internet backbone. Aperian is an end-to-end Cisco (Nasdaq:CSCO) Powered Network. Aperian has been certified for network architecture, security architecture and facilities design by GTE/BBN Technologies. Information about Aperian and its services can be found on the World Wide Web at www.aperian.com.

Aperian disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

The statements made by Aperian (the Company) may be forward-looking in nature. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Aperian believes that its primary risk factors include, but are not limited to: the need for substantial financial requirements; the need to develop effective internal processes and systems; the ability to attract and retain high-quality employees; changes in the overall economy; changes in technology; the number and size of competitors in its markets; changes in the law and regulatory policy; and the mix of product and services offered in the company's target markets. The statements and opinions presented here represent the views of the Company.