Kalahari Names Entrepreneur John Conlan as Non-Executive Director

-- Conlan, one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, to guide privately-held Kalahari through its next phase of growth --

Kalahari, a global provider of real-time price discovery and analytic solutions to financial and energy trading institutions in over 16 countries, today announced the appointment of Mr. John Conlan to its board of directors. Mr. Conlan has been a Kalahari shareholder for a number of years. 

Mr. Conlan is one of the UK's most experienced and respected entrepreneurs. 

In 1983 he became a founding director of First Leisure plc, at the time of its management buy- out from THF.  First Leisure was floated in 1984. Under his leadership it enjoyed uninterrupted profit progress and grew to become one of the UK's largest and most successful leisure companies, with a market capitalisation of over £500 million.  In 1998 Mr. Conlan founded Urbium PLC, the AIM listed bar restaurant group, which he developed into a business with a market value of £140 million. At the same time he launched Chorion PLC, an AIM listed media and intellectual property company which owned and managed a portfolio of famous authors rights, including Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton. More recently he was Chairman of the venture capital backed Barracuda PLC until its sale in 2005 and is currently Chairman of London Irish Holdings, the owners of the well-known London Irish Rugby Football Club. 

I would like to welcome John to our board. said Peter Trenier, Managing Director at Kalahari. John's experience founding and guiding major organisations like First Leisure and Urbium brings a new depth of expertise to the Kalahari board. His integrity and leadership are the common qualities of our board members, whose collective expertise helps the company pursue its strategic business objectives.  John's appointment, coupled with our established reputation for providing the world's leading banks, brokers and other financial institutions with pricing, analytics and publishing solutions and services, will be hugely advantageous to Kalahari and will position us well to take the company through to its next phase of growth. 

"Kalahari is at a very important point in its development.  With the introduction of an exciting new product to be released in the near future, the company has significant potential.  Few software companies combine the industry thought-leadership, technology savvy and dedication to customer satisfaction that Kalahari exhibits" said Conlan. "I look forward to working with the company's high-calibre management team and applying my expertise to this company, which consistently ranks among the leading real-time solution providers to the world's financial institutions."

Kalahari launched its flagship product kACE in 1999.  Since then, it has become the industry's most wanted and respected real-time price discovery and analytics solution among banks, broking firms, and other financial institutions and corporations.  With flexibility and control as the driving design principles, kACE gives traders the tools and the freedom to innovate and concentrate on what they do best - calculate and effect the trading opportunity.   

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