Coactive Networks Names Richard Bilas and John Seely Brown to its Advisory Board; Residential Gateway Pioneer Poised for Continued Leadership and Growth.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

SAUSALITO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000

Coactive Networks, the leading provider of gateways for connecting the Internet to all devices in homes and businesses, today announced the appointment of Richard A. Bilas and John Seely Brown to its advisory board. Bilas and Brown bring tremendous insight and experience to Coactive Networks, leveraging a wealth of expertise in the utilities industry and computer science field, among other key areas.

The Coactive Networks' advisory board consists of leading experts and senior executives who provide the company with key advice on business and technology strategies. Bilas and Brown will add to the diversity of technical and business perspectives on the board, helping Coactive to continue in pioneering the deployment of cutting-edge Internet technologies to the mass-market, delivering a new class of e-services to millions of commercial and residential customers around the world.

"Representing tremendous leadership in the utilities industry, and a remarkable track record for innovation in computer science and artificial intelligence, both Richard and John offer valuable perspective and experience," noted David Gaw, president of Coactive Networks. "Coactive's mission is to make telemetry e-services a reality for millions of consumers via its leading-edge technology and key strategic relationships. We're pleased to have advisory board members of such high caliber who can help bring us closer to realizing this goal."

Richard Bilas

An industry veteran, Bilas was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission in January 1997 by former Governor Pete Wilson. In February 1998, he became commission president and served in that capacity until March 2000.

Prior to this, Bilas held the John A. and Donnie Brock chair in Energy Economics and Policy, and was the director of the Institute for Energy Economics and Policy at the University of Oklahoma's Sarkeys Energy Center. He also served as a commissioner with the California Energy Commission, having been appointed to that position in 1987 by former Governor George Deukmejian and reappointed in 1992 by former Governor Pete Wilson.

Additionally, Bilas is a member of the editorial board of the Western Economic Association's (WEA) Contemporary Policy Issues and is on the advisory board of Energy and Environmental Management Magazine. He also serves on the boards of the WEA International, as well as the National Regulatory Research Institute.

Bilas holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia.

John Seely Brown

A noted researcher and executive, Brown is the chief scientist of Xerox Corporation and the past director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). At Xerox, Brown has been deeply involved in the formation of corporate strategy and the company's positioning as The Document Company. He has expanded the role of corporate research to include topics such as organizational learning, ethnographies of the workplace, complex adaptive systems and techniques for unfreezing the corporate mind.

Brown is a co-founder of the Institute for Research on Learning, a non-profit institute for addressing the problems of lifelong learning. He is also a member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Brown has published over 100 papers in scientific journals and was awarded the Harvard Business Review's 1991 McKinsey Award for his article, "Research that Reinvents the Corporation." In 1997, he published the book "Seeing Differently: Insights on Innovation" and is the co-author of the recently published book "Social Life of Information." In 1998, he was awarded the Industrial Research Institute Medal for outstanding accomplishments in technological innovation.

Brown has held additional positions, including associate director of the Institute for Research on Learning, principal scientist with Cognitive and Instructional Sciences at PARC, senior scientist at Bolt Beranek and Newman, and assistant professor for both the departments of computer science and psychology at the University of California at Irvine, where he developed a graduate program focused on artificial intelligence.

Brown holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from Brown University, as well as a master's degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in computer and communication sciences from the University of Michigan.

About Coactive Networks

Coactive Networks extends Internet access to every device, appliance, control system and computer - connecting networks to the real world. The Coactive Connector(R) and Coactive Router product families deliver a new class of telemetry e-services to homes and businesses worldwide. The leader in Internet telemetry, Coactive Networks delivers affordable, scalable connectivity with a highly integrated third-generation residential gateway platform and the patent-pending distributed object technology of the IOConnect Architecture(TM). Coactive is a privately held corporation based in Sausalito, California. More information on Coactive can be found at http://www.coactive.com.

Coactive, the Coactive Logo, Connecting Networks to the Real World, Coactive Connector, and IOConnect Architecture are trademarks or registered trademarks of Coactive Networks, Inc. in the US and other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners.