Ray Ashton Joins Novantus Corp. as CEO.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2002

Novantus Corp., a leader in cutting-edge Internet native, real-time enterprise computing solutions, announced today the appointment of Ray Ashton as its Chief Executive Officer and President.

"Having worked with various IT and software companies industry-wide, I can say with absolute certainty that Novantus has taken the next leap in application cost reduction measures, rapid implementation and ease of use. I am proud to be leading this visionary software company," said Ray Ashton, Novantus newly appointed CEO.

Mr. Ashton brings more than 20 years of successful track record, experience, credibility and name recognition within the Communications, IT, Media, Software and Service Provider industries to his executive role at Novantus. He is an aggressive executive, focused on results and a highly regarded business leader, who is known by top industry leaders as a "Service and Revenue Innovator."

Ray Ashton most recently served as the COO at Anabas, Inc., a Silicon Valley Media, E-Learning and Web-Conferencing Collaboration software company. Previously, Mr. Ashton served Nortel Networks as a Business Development Executive, involving product marketing, mergers and acquisitions and launching new businesses relative to service providers. As the founder of QICC, a company that was nominated for the Smithsonian Computer-world Innovation Award, Mr. Ashton attracted top corporations as business partners and was later published in the Smithsonian Yearbook -- "Search For New Heroes" -- and Red Herring, among other publications. Prior to QICC, Mr. Ashton held various management and executive positions and served at companies such as General DataCom (GDC), GTE (Verizon), Bay Networks (Nortel) and Rockwell International (Boeing).

Chike Nwasike, the founder and chairman of Novantus, is quoted as saying, "We are very happy to add Ray to our team of business technology visionaries. He has a solid grasp of the impact our technologies will have as well as the expanded power and cost reductions they bring to business."

About Novantus

Novantus Corporation provides flexible, Internet native real-time enterprise computing systems, based on a unique architecture that provides a three-dimensional real-time view of organizations, companies, customers and vendors. The Novantus family of Web-native business solutions provides an integrated end-to-end business environment which enable companies to manage their enterprise from anywhere in the world with only an Internet connection and a browser in a user friendly, secure environment. www.novantus.com