Board of Directors College Receives ISS Accreditation.

Business Editors

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 2, 2003

The Stosch Group, LLC, announced today that the Board of Directors College at the University of Richmond has received accreditation from the Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS). The college will take place at the University of Richmond from September 29 through October 1 and is a joint effort between The Stosch Group and the University of Richmond Robins School of Business Management Institute, both members of the Board Compliance Network.(R)

"With the spotlight on corporate governance and boards being held accountable for their decisions, directors are facing new challenges as they seek to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders," said Jill Lyons, executive vice president for research and development at the ISS. "As part of ISS's commitment to improving corporate governance, we're happy to have the Board of Directors College at the University of Richmond among the director education programs ISS has accredited."

The Board of Directors College will begin with a day focused entirely on International Corporate Governance issues. Featured speakers include Georges Uguex of the NYSE, Susan Koski-Grafer of the SEC and Peter Clapman, former chairman of the International Corporate Governance Network and senior vice-president of TIAA-CREF. The following two days will focus on U.S. Corporate Governance and risk reduction for directors. Faculty will include Kathy Eddy, former chair of the AICPA, Dr. Daniel Guy, author of a guide for Audit Committees, Steven Anderson, managing director of Marsh USA, and Ric Marshall, chief executive officer of The Corporate Library. James Comey, US attorney for the Southern District of New York and William Barr, former U.S. attorney general, will serve as keynote speakers.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is the world's leading provider of proxy voting and corporate governance services. Located in Rockville, Maryland, ISS provides proxy research, voting recommendations and governance advisory services to financial institutions and corporations worldwide. ISS's proprietary rating system, Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ(R)), ranks the corporate governance performance of more than 5,400 U.S. companies. ISS's new global CGQ expansion includes ratings for 2,000 companies in key European, Asian, and Canadian markets. Considered to be the world's leading authority on corporate governance, ISS's CGQ is designed on the premise that good corporate governance ultimately results in increased shareholder value.