FRONT PORCH DIGITAL NAMES EQUITY PIER CEO SWEENEY &
STORAGETEK CFO KOCOL TO BOARD
CHERRY HILL, NJ, December 5, 2000 - Front Porch Digital Inc. (OTCBB: FPDI) of
Cherry Hill, NJ named four new members to its Board of Directors, expanding the
Company's expertise in business development and information storage. FPDI also
announced the formation of a Technical Advisory Board. The new directors, who
join Chairman and CEO Jean Reiczyk and current director Don Maggi on the now
six-person Board, are:
o TOM SWEENEY, 40, CEO AND FOUNDER OF EQUITY PIER LLC OF BOULDER, CO. Equity
Pier specializes in providing capital and management to emerging companies
in information technology and telecommunications. Equity Pier assisted
FPDI's recent acquisition of the Media Services operations of StorageTek,
launching FPDI as a leading player in the emerging information conversion
market. Prior to founding Equity Pier, Mr. Sweeney was part of the original
executive team at Level 3 Communications, where he was the Senior VP of
Global Marketing, and later became the Senior VP of Strategic Alliances and
Global Sales. Prior to joining Level 3, Mr. Sweeney was Senior VP of Global
Marketing for WorldCom Business Planning. Preceding WorldCom, Mr. Sweeney
was the Senior VP of Business Development for MFS Communications, where he
also held the position of Senior VP of Sales and Operations.
o ROBERT KOCOL, 43, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF STORAGETEK(TM)(STORAGE
TECHNOLOGY CORP., NYSE: STK). Mr. Kocol has been with StorageTek since
1980. In 1991, he became Director of Financial Operations, then Director of
Worldwide Field Operations Finance and Administration. In 1996, he was
named Vice President of Financial Planning and Operations, and in 1998 he
was named Corporate Vice President and CFO.
o SAEED KARIM, 47, RECENTLY NAMED FPDI PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER.
Mr. Karim is the former Vice President of Marketing of North America for
StorageTek. At StorageTek, Mr. Karim was involved in marketing, program
management, business development, financial planning, worldwide field
operations, and strategic planning. He managed StorageTek's Emerging
Markets and Indirect Channels business, opening new markets and territories
in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, and he developed
StorageTek's media sales business.
o TIM PETRY, 41, RECENTLY NAMED FPDI CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER. Mr. Petry has
more than 20 years experience in investment banking and financial and
operational consulting. Since 1989, Mr. Petry has been a partner and a
principal shareholder of the Armand Group of Chicago, a middle market
investment and merchant bank. Mr. Petry has led corporate finance, merger
and acquisition and divestiture projects in a variety of industries, and
has managed Armand's portfolio company interests. Mr. Petry has completed
active assignments for clients as CFO; in strategy, corporate development,
operations management and design; and in the supervision of workout and
turnaround situations.
In a related development, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Jay Yogeshwar, 38, a
former member of the Board, was named Chairman of a new Technical Advisory
Board, which will include industry leaders in information conversion and
storage. As a research scientist with Toshiba, Dr. Yogeshwar played a key role
developing DVD-related technologies and helped create the world's first DVD
pre-mastering facility at the Time Warner CVC studios. As head of a high tech
consulting firm, he provided software and systems designs to leading
corporations, such as Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting.
Front Porch Digital Inc. (www.fpdigital.com) is positioning itself as an
industry leader in the emerging market for the conversion and formatting of
text, images, audio, graphics and video, from any format to any other format,
for access, management and distribution via any digital platform, including
broadband Internet, DVD, and Advanced Digital Television. The Company also is a
leading provider of offline media conversion and data migration services to
Fortune Global 500 companies that need to convert tape and optical assets from
old to new formats to leverage technological advances. To join Front Porch
Digital's e-mail list, send your request to [email protected].
CONTACTS: Gary Fishman ([email protected]), Hudson Stone Group,
212-889-1727, x110.
