BlueMountain Capital Management Hires Four New Investment Professionals: Three from Goldman Sachs, one from Lehman Brothers.

NEW YORK -- Personnel Moves Designed Add to Investment Capacity and Reach

BlueMountain Capital Management, managers of a relative-value corporate credit fund with approximately $2.5 billion in assets, today announced that it has hired four investment professionals. The executives, who officially joined the firm over the past 10 days, include quantitative strategist Arthur Berd, formerly of Lehman Brothers, and from Goldman Sachs: portfolio manager Bryce Markus, and associate portfolio managers Jonathan Loflin and Scott Smith. The hirings are designed to support the firm's growth on the investment management and idea generation side of the business.

"We put enormous emphasis on attracting and retaining top talent--professionals who are not only smart and dedicated, but also who fit our firm's collaborative and intellectually rigorous culture," said Andrew Feldstein, president of BlueMountain. "Bryce, Jonathan, Scott and Arthur perfectly meet those criteria."

"As we continue to grow, these four experienced professionals will play an integral role at the firm and extend our investment reach--generating investment ideas, evaluating and managing risk, interfacing with our trade execution and credit research teams, as well as with our dealers and the fund's investors," added Stephen Siderow, chief operating officer.

About the New Executives

Bryce Markus joins BlueMountain from Goldman Sachs, where he was a Vice President and traded corporate debt and credit derivatives. He received an MBA and a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining BlueMountain, Arthur Berd was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers, where he was responsible for a variety of quantitative credit models and strategies across corporate bonds and credit derivatives, and was instrumental in portfolio advisory activities for the firm's largest clients. He is a chartered financial analyst and holds a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University, and an M.S. in theoretical physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Jonathan Loflin was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, focusing on interest rate derivatives, credit risk, structured equity derivatives and cross-market hybrids. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a master's of engineering degree and bachelor's degrees in finance and computer science. He also completed a thesis in the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering.

Scott Smith was a credit derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in New York from 2002-2004, where he focused on investment grade companies. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Scott attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, earning a B.A. in economics with minors in psychology and physics.

BlueMountain Capital Management, which manages the relative-value BlueMountain Credit Alternatives Fund, employs over 50 people and serves primarily institutional investors. The Fund invests--both long and short--in the global credit markets, primarily through credit default swaps and other related credit derivatives. Its investment philosophy combines three vectors: fundamental credit research, quantitative analysis and technical market knowledge and experience. The fund was launched in November 2003 by Andrew Feldstein, president; Stephen Siderow, chief operating officer; and Gery Sampere, head of credit research and portfolio manager. The Fund's manager is a registered investment advisor with the SEC (RIA).