R101 Adds Five Industry Leaders to Its Board of Directors.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2001

R101 announced today that it has added five new business leaders to its board of directors. The new board members will help R101 achieve its mission to ensure that Silicon Valley is the beneficiary of its own innovation. According to Deidre Paknad, R101 CEO, "We are pleased to have the aid and support of such a distinguished set of executives. From across industries and sectors, each member brings expertise and entrepreneurship combined with compassion and commitment."

The new members include:

Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, Director of San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and Families: Deborah drives policies and practices to increase quality, expand accessibility, and promote accountability for the city's children and youth service system. In her role at DCYF, Deborah is responsible for the annual allocation of $30 million, funding more than 130 nonprofits and six city departments. She is Mayor Brown's chief policy advisor on children and youth issues in San Francisco. Deborah implemented a number of technology systems for accelerating DCYF activities including a contracts management system and electronic signatures for financial transactions. She is also a member of a number of task forces, commissions, and boards.

Steve Ellis, Executive Vice President, Wells Fargo: Steve leads Wells Fargo's Wholesale Internet Solutions Group and is credited with envisioning and helping to realize Wells Fargo's opportunity in the emerging business-to-business Internet arena. His responsibilities include their Commercial Electronic Office products as well as their exchange and marketplace strategy. With over 13 years at Wells Fargo, he has held a number of senior and executive roles in finance and operations in real estate, commercial banking, and most recently wholesale banking.

Sridar Iyengar, Partner-in-Charge, Emerging Business Practice, KPMG: Sridar leads the firm's efforts working with emerging stage companies and positioning them effectively for growth in the global marketplace, helping them in key areas such as set up and financing strategy, mergers and acquisitions, market entry, alliances, exploiting intellectual property rights, change management and shareholder value enhancement. Sridar's last assignment was as Chairman and CEO of KPMG's India operations. He has been with the firm since 1968 and is an active participant in community activities locally and globally.

Ed Martin, Vice President Human Resources, Pixar Animation Studios: Ed is responsible for employee relations and development and human resource programs at Pixar. Working with arguably the most creative technical professionals in the industry, Ed has led efforts to create an equitable, ergonomic workplace that is a key retention factor for Pixar. With 26 years of experience, Ed's career has been distinguished by working with companies that combine innovation with strong corporate cultures created through a mix of corporate and personal responsibility. He has been part of teams that have helped shape the workplace at such Silicon Valley innovators as Silicon Graphics, Intuit, Tandem Computers and Watkins-Johnson Co.

Diana Reid, Bay Area President and Executive Director, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs: Diana is responsible for running FWE's largest regional office, working with over 700 bay area entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers to help women build and lead high growth technology and life science companies. Diana manages the regional program efforts of FWE, coordinating its offerings to its members. In its first two annual Springboard 2000 venture conferences, FWE helped women-led startup companies raise over $260 million in funding. Diana's career in high technology includes roles at Microsoft Corp., leading its Silicon Valley expansion and outreach efforts, WebTV Networks, and Waggener Edstrom Public Relations.

Deborah Alvarez said, "I am honored to join the board of R101 and to work to support their vision and mission. R101's efforts are urgently needed if we have any hope of improving our communities' social infrastructure and capital." Sridar Iyengar added, "I applaud R101's efforts, and am pleased to join the board. It is our collective responsibility to bridge the digital divide between corporations as a model for bridging it between citizens, and to bridge the gap here in Silicon Valley as a foundation for a global solution."

About R101

R101's mission is to ensure that Silicon Valley is the beneficiary of its own innovation and to create an ethic of reciprocity that extends beyond corporate walls to our families and our neighbors. The company is distinguished by its focus on deploying strategic and constituent-facing technologies that fuel the "5 Cs" -- content, context, collaboration, community, and commerce -- to a broad array of nonprofits within the community. These sustainable technology implementations provide exponential benefit back to the community by allowing nonprofits to economically scale the number of services, improve the quality of services and increase the number of constituents served. R101's Companies that Care network is comprised of Silicon Valley's best corporate citizens, who provide their technologies in part to mitigate the significant impact of the tech boom on the areas nonprofits. R101 is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit http://www.r101.org or call 650/461-0010.