Impower Appoints New President and Chief Vision Officer; Founder Eric Zilling Becomes Strategic Planning Head; Karen Varhley To Oversee Operations.

Business Editors

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2000

Impower, an eMarketing services leader, today appointed Karen Varhley, formerly one of AT&T's senior e-business executives, to the position of president. The company also appointed former president, Eric Zilling - part of the founding management team -- chief vision officer. Both will report to Donn Rappaport, chairman & CEO.

"These new appointments are representative of the commitment we have made in leadership talent to match our state-of-the art technology investment," said Mr. Rappaport. "By strengthening our top management ranks, we are continuing our build-up to become the leading provider of permission email and direct response-based Internet marketing services.

"Karen Varhley brings tremendous business strengths and leadership abilities to Impower," he added. "Karen's appointment also frees Eric Zilling to make his greatest contribution by concentrating on long-range planning, product development, strategic partnership and mergers and acquisitions.

Ms. Varhley and Mr. Zilling both will be based here in Impower's headquarters.

About Karen Varhley, President, Impower

Prior to joining Impower, Ms. Varhley was a marketing and business development leader at AT&T. As vice president of Consumer eBusiness, she oversaw the corporate Web site and had overall responsibility for AT&T's consumer e-business and e-operations. She also spearheaded the creation of AT&T's corporate-wide global Internet/IP and guided the financial analysis, structuring and sequencing of deals resulting in partnerships with Yahoo, Excite, Lycos and Microsoft, among others.

Earlier, as director, strategy, pricing and planning for AT&T Consumer Markets Division, she directed several large teams in franchise strategy development, competitive assessment, strategic pricing, business planning, and business development within the communications and Internet industries. Ms. Varhley also led the team responsible for the launch of AT&T DirecTV direct broadcast satellite services. She has significant experience in segmentation, targeting, positioning, channel, pricing and marketing communication strategies.

About Eric Zilling, Chief Vision Officer, Impower

Eric Zilling is part of the founding management team that launched Impower in late 1999, having joined ALC Interactive -- Impower's predecessor -- in April 1997. A marketing and Internet pioneer, he has created marketing databases since 1984 for some of the country's top media and retail companies.

Mr. Zilling began his career as an account executive at Greenwich, Connecticut-based Direct Media where he launched the TV Guide and Spiegel marketing databases, the largest list rental files at the time. In the late 1980s, he joined Peterborough, N.H.-based Millard Group where he created the Time Warner corporate database and handled all list management for the Time Inc. Magazine Group.

Seeing the potential of the Internet, Zilling left the Millard Group in 1994 to forward the burgeoning online marketing industry. He rejoined Direct Media later that year to develop Smartbase, a cooperative database of consumer merchandise mailers that penetrates almost 40 percent of U.S. households. Before joining Impower, Zilling was responsible for all of Direct Media's interactive programs, including creation of an Internet catalog request program called CatalogLink.

About Impower

Impower is a leading full-service provider of business-to-consumer and business-to-business eMarketing solutions based on cost-per-action models. Headquartered in Princeton, N.J., the company is headed by a team of executives who helped to launch the eMarketing revolution but who also boast decades of experience in direct marketing offer development, testing and refinement. Impower was founded by American List Counsel, the world's largest direct mail list brokerage company.