Christopher C. Desmarais to Head Socially Responsible Investments for Gabelli; Promotion 'Formalizes' Effort Begun in 1987.

Business Editors

RYE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2003

SRI Program Has Grown Fifty Percent Over the Past Three Years

Christopher C. Desmarais has been named Senior Vice President and Director of Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) for Gabelli Asset Management Company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gabelli Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:GBL).

The appointment "formalizes our SRI effort which was initiated in 1987 and currently has over $500 million under management. The level of new SRI assets has increased more than 50 percent over the past three years" according to Mario J. Gabelli, Chairman and Chief Executive of Gabelli Asset Management.

"Chris will be responsible for the sales, marketing and screening process for all SRI activity," he said. "He will also continue his management role in various other areas of our separate accounts business."

Mr. Desmarais joined Gabelli in 1993 and has been involved with SRI from the outset. "Our concept of socially responsible investing is based on the premise that clients should have the ability to have their assets invested in accordance with their own personal social guidelines without sacrificing performance," Mr. Desmarais points out. "we can customize portfolios in accordance with every client's guidelines, whether they are Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, or are simply concerned investors with a socially responsible agenda," he said.

Mr. Desmarais, is a graduate of Fairfield University, and at 31, is the youngest Senior Vice President in the Gabelli organization. He has lectured extensively on socially responsible investing, most recently at the Green Mountain SRI Summit last September where he argued that socially screened portfolios do not negatively affect performance.

During his tenure with Gabelli, he helped develop the company's proprietary Social Screening Overlay process, "which enables us to screen out, on a client specific basis, certain industries and companies from a given portfolio."

The target audience for SRI, according to Mr. Desmarais, are religious institutions, foundations and endowments, city and state pension funds and high net worth individuals. SRI is only offered in separately managed accounts including Value, Small Cap Value, Large Cap Value and Large Cap Growth products.

Mr. Desmarais resides in Ridgefield, CT, with his wife and son.

Gabelli Asset Management Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages approximately $21 billion in assets of mutual funds and closed-end funds (Gabelli Funds, LLC), partnerships (Alternative Investment Group) and private advisory accounts (GAMCO).