Wofex, Inc. Introduces Management Team to Lead Global Securities Trading Marketplace.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2000

Wofex, Inc., an electronic securities trading marketplace, today introduced the members of its recently formed management team responsible for creating the new trading venue. The company will consolidate the fragmented securities marketplace by providing fully automated order execution, reduced transaction costs and increased liquidity for its customers.

Led by Richard A. Kelly, Chairman and CEO, Wofex, Inc., the management team will work to build the Wofex corporate infrastructure to support the company's continued growth and development. "The most important component of our ongoing success is to attract and retain a dedicated, effective management team that understands this rapidly changing marketplace," said Mr. Kelly. "The team we have built represents a wealth of industry expertise that will help us to achieve our goal of creating a centralized, global trading venue for the professional investment and trading communities."

Prior to founding Wofex, Mr. Kelly served as a Director at Andersen Consulting, functioning as their thought leader on electronic trading and automated securities exchanges, and consulting with several of the ECNs and exchanges currently in the marketplace. Additionally, he has served as a member of Instinet's Strategic Planning Group, as well as done work for Lehman Brothers, project management for AT&T, consulting for the U.S. Secret Service and development of accounting systems for Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Kelly holds an MBA in Finance/International Business from New York University's Stern School of Business and a BS in Computer Science from Monmouth University.

Additional management team members include:

Howard M. Schneider, President and CEO, Wofex Brokerage, Inc. (a subsidiary of Wofex, Inc.), joined Wofex after a lengthy and varied career at Bankers Trust, serving as President of both BT Securities Corporation and BT Futures Corporation. Mr. Schneider has been active on the boards and committees of numerous industry associations, has served as a director of Penril DataComm Networks Inc. (NASDAQ) for many years and was chairman of its audit committee. Mr. Schneider graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and completed an MBA as well as substantial doctoral work at New York University's Stern School of Business.

A co-founder of Wofex, William J. Chrystal, Chief Information Officer, has over 15 years experience designing, integrating and managing distributed technology and network information services in a broad range of financial markets including commercial banking, investment banking and capital markets. Mr. Chrystal's experience spans strategic planning of information technology architectures; design and implementation of information dissemination and transactional systems; and large-scale network implementation projects in such organizations as Andersen Consulting, JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan Bank. He serves as a director of both Wofex, Inc., and Wofex Brokerage, Inc. Mr. Chrystal holds an MS in Computer Science from Pace University and a BA in Economics from New York University.

William McCloskey, Vice President of Operations, served as a Managing Director of Bankers Trust, where, over the past 14 years, he established many of the clearance and settlement operations and ran a substantial portion of the back office operations. He has managed relationships with key industry suppliers, such as the NSCC, DTC, NASD and the SEC and is registered as a Financial and Operations Principle. Mr. McCloskey has an MBA in accounting from St. John's University, a BS in accounting from Providence College and is a licensed CPA in New York.

Bernard Doucette, Vice President of Finance, was previously Vice President and Controller for NDB.com, the on-line securities trading business. He has served as Business Area Controller of Equity Derivatives for both NatWest Markets and Deutsche Bank and began his career at KPMG Peat Marwick as a financial statement auditor. Mr. Doucette has a BA and an MBA from Pace University in public accounting and is a CPA in the state of New York.

Cathleen Rittereiser, Vice President of Marketing, most recently served as Senior Vice President of MarketDataInsite.com, a B2B portal. Ms. Rittereiser has held sales and marketing positions in several financial services and technology organizations including Merrill Lynch, Bridge Information Systems and Moody's Investors Service. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Literacy Partners, a New York based non-profit. Ms. Rittereiser has a BA from Franklin and Marshall College and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Charles S. Winslow, Vice President of Business Development & Strategic Alliances, has 17 years of business development experience. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Winslow was a consultant with Andersen Consulting within the Financial Ideas Exchange practice. He has also served as a financial consultant with Smith Barney and co-founded an international talent agency. Mr. Winslow holds an MBA in Finance from New York University's Stern School of Business and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.

"We see the securities markets driving toward one global, electronic, securities trading marketplace. By combining all of the trading alternatives into one solution, Wofex will create that venue -- eliminating market fragmentation, reducing transaction costs, and increasing liquidity for market participants," says Mr. Kelly. "Our stellar management team, with over 50 years' combined experience in finance and technology, gives us the deep market knowledge and experience to achieve our vision of Wofex as the global securities marketplace."

Participants who will benefit from this innovative marketplace include institutional money managers, broker-dealers, pension funds, electronic communications networks, hedge funds and agency brokers. Services are expected to be available later this year.

About Wofex, Inc.

Wofex is a fully electronic global securities marketplace for the professional investment management and trading community. Wofex, scheduled to launch in Q4 of this year, will offer a fully automated, anonymous trading platform that executes transactions in a multitude of ways. This neutral, proprietary platform aims to reduce fragmentation, improve liquidity, and increase market reach. The company has received initial investments from Media Technology Ventures and others. Wofex is based in New York City. For more information, please visit www.wofex.com.