CIO of City of Minneapolis Joins EquaTerra, Adding Further Depth of Expertise to Firm's Advisory Practice Dedicated Solely to the Public Sector Community.

HOUSTON -- EquaTerra today announced that Karl Kaiser, previously the CIO and Assistant City Coordinator for the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has joined the firm's public sector advisory group. Karl possesses more than 25 years of expertise in helping Information Technology (IT) organizations achieve their business objectives through internal transformation and outsourcing.

In his role as Minneapolis' CIO and Assistant City Coordinator, Karl outsourced the City's entire IT infrastructure and associated support functions, an initiative that allowed municipal IT employees to focus more on supporting the City's business needs while saving the City in excess of $20 million over the course of the seven year deal.

Said Steven Bosacker, the City's Coordinator, "When Karl became our CIO in 2000, he encountered an internal IT group focused on technology for technology's sake, rather than on the City's business goals and the needs of our citizens. His knowledge and vision for enabling our IT department to focus on strategic and value-add initiatives by outsourcing our IT infrastructure has truly transformed our ability to serve our internal and external constituents over the past five years. EquaTerra and its public sector clients will be well-served by Karl's expertise."

Prior to his work in Minneapolis, Karl was an independent management consultant, focusing on public sector business transformation, including engagements at Anoka and Scott Counties, both in Minnesota. He started his career at Unisys, (previously known as Sperry), where he held a variety of executive positions including Vice President of its Government Line of Business for Europe and Director of Advanced Programs for its Defense Systems Division.

EquaTerra's public sector group is widely-acknowledged as the only sourcing advisory firm with a full team of public sector industry experts possessing a "360-degree perspective." Most of its members have served as internal functional leads as well as advisors and providers of services to public sector organizations before joining EquaTerra. As a result, they are armed with distinct and unique insights to help their clients achieve their transformation goals.

Commenting on the quality of advice and support it received from EquaTerra, Don Packham, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Assistant Director and Chief Human Resources Officer, said, "Because of their combination of deep functional expertise and rich public sector experience, EquaTerra's advisors were able to help us establish an employee services center that suits our unique needs and environment."

And Harry E. Black, CFO of the City of Richmond, Virginia, said, "As a result of EquaTerra coming in to assess our diverse municipal environment and developing the necessary tracking measures and protocols, the City of Richmond is able to launch a comprehensive performance management system for the first time. EquaTerra offers a solid understanding of the public sector and an outstanding level of expertise that result in a 'final product' that exceeded my expectations."

EquaTerra's Public Sector Practice is led by Glenn Davidson, its Managing Director. Since its founding over two years ago, Glenn has built a highly-tenured, multi-faceted team that focuses on all types of public sector organizations including federal, state and local governments, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, charitable organizations and other not-for-profit entities. His own public sector expertise includes serving as the Chief of Staff, Communications Director and Press Secretary to a former Virginia Governor; as an executive in a trade association serving the high-tech community; and as a consultant with another professional services firm serving government and other not-for-profit clients.

About EquaTerra

EquaTerra sourcing advisors help clients achieve sustainable value in their business and IT processes. With an average of more than 20 years of industry experience in over 600 global transformation and outsourcing projects, our advisors offer unmatched industry expertise. EquaTerra has deep functional knowledge in Finance and Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement and other critical business processes with advisors throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. We help clients achieve significant cost savings and process improvement with outsourcing, internal transformation and shared services solutions. For more information on EquaTerra, please contact Lee Ann Moore at +1 713.669.9292; [e-mail]; www.equaterra.com.