Lawson Taps Dr. Peter Patton as Senior Vice President, International Business Development.

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 1999--Lawson Software, The Global Solutions Company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Peter C. Patton, Lawson's chief technology officer (CTO), as senior vice president of International Business Development. The appointment accompanies a restructuring of Lawson's international operations (see separate press release issued today) targeted at growing Lawson's international revenue - currently 10 percent of the company's revenue - to 25 percent by the end of its fiscal year 2002.

Patton will lead both international operations and business development at Lawson Software, which currently has both direct and indirect software operations in 15 countries, and encompasses 200+ people. Patton will report to Lawson President and Chief Operating Officer Richard Lawson. Prior to joining Lawson three years ago as CTO, Patton held numerous prestigious high technology positions, including the post of chief information officer (CIO) of the University of Pennsylvania and lead IT consultant to: the National Technology Transfer Center; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Dun and Bradstreet's DataQuest Division. He was founding director of Minnesota Supercomputer Institute, vice president and director of Parallel Processing Architecture at MCC and director of computing at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of 16 books and 86 journal articles. Patton also holds a Harvard A.B. degree in Engineering and Applied Physics, an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of Stuttgart in Germany.

Included in Patton's international experience are positions as scientific consultant to the European, African and Middle Eastern divisions of Sperry Rand, and as director of marketing and technical support for Univac's British Commonwealth Group. He has assisted various U.S. computer industry firms in establishing marketing and technical relationships in China, Japan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

"Lawson has had international presence through its financial products since 1995," Patton said. "Fueled now by the expansion of our international products for human resources and performance management, our vertical market leadership and our advanced technologies breakthroughs, we are well poised to enjoy a healthy slice of the explosive growth predicted by analysts for the Pacific Rim, Middle East and European markets."

Lawson Software, The Global Solutions Company, is a $238 million provider of self-evident, role-based Web solutions for financials, human resources, procurement, supply chain and performance management. With more than 2,500 mid- to large-sized corporate customers, Lawson has distinguished itself competitively through a unique blend of feature-rich customer solutions, technology innovation and user-friendly support. Lawson Software has been acclaimed by technology analysts for its innovative and unique use of leading-edge technologies, like Self-Evident Applications(tm) (SEA) on the Web, and Drill Around(tm) for integrated, cross-application data access.

Red Herring magazine names Lawson "the strongest private ERP company" and lists Lawson among the world's top 50 private companies. The Information Technology Association of America asserts Lawson is the first to be certified for Year 2000 compliance. Says the Meta Group, "Lawson gives its customers quantified savings by aiming their technology at saving corporations on overhead...a rare thing in the client/server world." Offering LAWSON INSIGHT II for UNIX, NT and AS/400 platforms, Lawson has offices in 15 countries, more than 20 distributors worldwide and a 96 percent client retention over five years. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis and London. Additional information about Lawson Software is available on the company's Web site, http://www.lawson.com, or by calling [phone].

Lawson and LAWSON INSIGHT are registered trademarks of Lawson Software. Other company and product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.