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Woodland
Hills, Calif., December 01, 2000 – Vertel® (NASDAQ: VRTL),
a leading provider of middleware for the telecommunications market, today announced that it will reorganize its e*ORB and Mediation Solutions operations into two separate business units in order to more rapidly achieve its objectives to seed the market with these new technologies. A third division, WebResolve, was formed on September 28, 2000.
"The marketing teams that we formed in June have identified discrete markets for each of our products," said Cyrus D. Irani, President and CEO of Vertel. "This groundwork made it clear that the best way to address these markets is to realign the company into distinct business units so that we can devote the appropriate resources necessary to penetrate and expand within each market segment."
General Managers Named for Each Division
Concurrent with the realignment, a general manager has been appointed for each of the divisions. Sean Gavin, formerly vice president, WebResolve has been named general manager, WebResolve. Gavin, 30, has been with Vertel since its inception in 1995 and has held various roles in sales and business development.
Prior to joining Vertel, Gavin held sales positions with Worldtalk, a messaging and Internet security company and Juston.com, a file sharing ASP. Gavin holds a degree in Computer Sciences from Dublin Institute of Technology.
Leonid Kalika, 49, formerly vice president, new business development has been appointed to the position of general manager, Mediation Solutions. Prior to joining Vertel, Kalika was director of development for a telecommunications hardware group at Digi International. Before joining Digi, he led a start-up that developed enterprise network management solutions and served as an R&D manager at Retix, the former parent company of Vertel.
Toni Graham, formerly vice president, R&D and professional services unit, has been appointed general manager, e*ORB. Graham, 53, joined Vertel in June, 2000 from Hewlett-Packard where she held a variety of network/telecommunications and management positions including managing several businesses. Graham holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cal Poly, Pomona and a masters in computer sciences from Chico State.
The company also announced that Koert Blom, 35, will become general manager of the TMN product line, responsible for maximizing product profitability. Blom joined Retix in 1991. Since then, Blom has held the positions of senior software engineer, manager of R&D, manager of pre/post sales and director of worldwide sales engineering. Before joining Retix, Blom worked for two different software companies -- EGS in Germany and SIM in Italy.
"We are seeing strong and growing interest along all product lines and this realignment will help the company to fully capitalize on the momentum we have built. I am very pleased to be able to draw upon such talented resources within the company to lead us forward in executing our strategy of seeding the market with our technology," Irani added.
Other Organizational Changes
In other appointments announced today, Craig S. Scott, 53, was named to the positions of vice president, finance and administration, chief financial officer and secretary replacing Gordon L. Almquist who has resigned from those positions to pursue other interests. Almquist will remain with the company for a limited period of time to assist with the transition.
Scott has been Vertel's controller since 1998 and was appointed an executive officer in the company in May 2000. Scott is a chartered accountant and has held several senior level financial management positions with Price-Waterhouse and Redkin Laboratories, Inc., and has also served as a financial consultant to several small and mid-sized companies.
"We thank Gordon for his financial guidance and direction over the past two years and wish him well in his new endeavors," said Irani. "Since joining Vertel, Craig has demonstrated strong financial management skills and a thorough understanding of our industry. He is an ideal replacement for Gordon."
David Boss, 36, has been appointed as Controller following Scott's promotion. Boss has been accounting manager with Vertel for the past two-and-one-half years. Prior to joining Vertel, Boss held financial positions Time-Warner, the Walt Disney Company and NBC. Boss is a graduate of California State University at Northridge.
About Vertel
Vertel is a leading provider of middleware for the telecommunications industry. Vertel provides high performance, reliable middleware for connecting modern, distributed computing software. The company specializes in software that manages broadband, wireless and internet networks and the embedded software that runs the hardware in these networks.
Vertel middleware provides software-to-software communication for connecting telecom management systems together, connecting the distributed software inside telecom network equipment and connecting the communication software of mobile devices such as hand-held PDAs with network based applications.
Vertel products are sold worldwide to network equipment manufacturers, service providers, software vendors and systems integrators. The company's customer base is a "who's who" of the telcom industry. Vertel also develops turnkey management applications that fit individual customer requirements through its Professional Services Unit. The company is based in Woodland Hills, California and has sales offices throughout the world.
For more information on Vertel or its products, contact Vertel at 21300 Victory Boulevard, Suite 700, Woodland Hills, Calif. 91367; telephone: 818/227-1400; fax: 818/598-0047 or visit the Vertel Web site at
http://www.vertel.com.
Safe Harbor Statement: Except for the historical information presented, the matters discussed in this news release are forward looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements should be evaluated together with the many risks and uncertainties that affect our business and may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. These include timely and successful development of products and technologies; successful introduction and customer acceptance of new and enhanced products and technologies in existing and new markets; the possibility that delays or difficulties will arise in implementing complex products and technologies and enabling them to work successfully with other complex products and technologies; the possible development and introduction of competitive products and new and alternative technologies; pricing, currency and exchange risks; governmental and regulatory developments affecting Vertel and its customers; the ability to retain and attract key personnel; and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Vertel's periodic and other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Vertel, including, but not limited to, the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending September 30,2000. Vertel undertakes no obligation to correct inadvertent or intentional miscommunication by members of the press of the company's formal or informal statements to the media or to update forward-looking statements made in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement.
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