Digital Disrupters' Growth Drives Addition of Three to Management Team; New Employees' Diverse Skills Will Accelerate Company's Business Creation Model.

Business Editors

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2000

With three newly created Internet businesses and three more in its EquityManufacturing(TM) pipeline, Digital Disrupters has expanded its management staff by more than 100 percent in the past four months in order to increase its rate of new business formation.

The three most recent additions to the Digital Disrupters team are Caroline Calkins, Gary Heck and Roger Merel. Calkins and Heck join the company as directors of Disrupter Implementation, while Merel joins as vice president of BizLab(TM), Digital Disrupters' think tank.

In their capacities as directors of Disrupter Implementation, Calkins and Heck will divide the responsibilities of managing the early stage organization and planning of the 8-10 Internet businesses Digital Disrupters creates annually. Each will lead business planning efforts that include competitive and financial analysis, market positioning and scaling strategy. They will also team with the new companies' management to begin build-out of the new operations, ensuring smooth transition from planning through launch.

Directing BizLab, Merel leads the team responsible for conception and identification of new business models to be developed at Digital Disrupters. The BizLab group conducts early market analysis and industry segmentation studies, identifies optimal domain partners and drafts the concept summaries that act as the foundation for the full-scale business plan to be developed by the Disrupter Implementation group.

"With the basic business model in place, we were ready to accelerate Digital Disrupters' output by adding these executives with solid experience in conceiving and building businesses," said founder and CEO Mohnish Pabrai. "Because of Digital Disrupters' unique approach to new business creation, it was a challenging search to find candidates with the exact skill sets to fill the positions. We think Caroline, Gary and Roger are perfect fits."

Calkins brings more than 10 years of management consulting and project leadership to the position. Prior to joining Digital Disrupters, she was a director in KPMG's Consulting Transportation Practice. Calkins has handled e-commerce, strategic planning, post-merger integration, new product and service development, market entry strategy and organizational restructuring for such clients as Federal Express, TWA, UPS, CSX, Ryder Logistics and Yellow Freight. Prior to KPMG, she held associate and managerial positions at the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

Heck brings nearly 20 years of project management and consulting experience to Digital Disrupters. He comes from Kuczmarski & Associates where he led the e-business and high-tech practice for the management consulting firm. Among other responsibilities, Heck spearheaded global efforts of IBM's Pervasive Computing Group to develop their partnering strategy for mobile Internet market development. He has provided strategic marketing expertise to Nokia, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ingersoll Rand and others. Before Kuczmarski & Associates, Heck directed general management consulting for CNA, where he led strategy, marketing and new product development efforts involving technology and e-commerce.

Merel brings 15 years of industry experience to his position as vice president, BizLab. Prior to Digital Disrupters, he was responsible for the establishment of Tellabs' venture investment group and was the first member of Tellabs business development team formed in 1986. In that capacity, he held responsibilities for mergers and acquisitions as well as strategic planning, business development and market analysis. Previously, Roger was director of engineering and principal systems architect for GTE Airfone, Inc., where he was responsible for the technical vision, specification, development and deployment of the first digital mobile wireless system in North America. For this effort, he received the Leslie H. Warner Award for Technical Achievement. Merel is also the founder of a successful Internet infomediary business.

About Digital Disrupters

Based in Downers Grove, Ill., Digital Disrupters(TM) is in the business of creating and developing Internet-centric companies. Digital Disrupters researches and develops business models that leverage disruptive technologies like the Internet, then partners with established companies to create new organizations which can thrive in these fast-growing new markets.

Digital Disrupters has developed a business creation methodology, EquityManufacturing(TM), that begins with new business concept generation, flows through screening and validation and concludes with implementation - the creation of a new business. The BizLab(TM), the first step in the EquityManufacturing process, is Digital Disrupters' research and development laboratory where new business models are generated. Only 3 percent of the concept models actually make it through the "manufacturing" process.

For additional information about Digital Disrupters, please visit the company's Web site at www.disrupters.com.