Shawn Ovenden Joins SSI as Vice President of Operations
Calgary, Canada - June 10th, 2003 - Sterne Stackhouse Inc. ("SSI") (TSX.V:SSX), a leader in agile query, reporting, and Data-Exploitation™ software, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Shawn Ovenden, Vice President of Operations. Mr. Ovenden will lead SSI's business development and general operations initiatives.
Primarily, Mr. Ovenden will be responsible for orchestrating and driving the partnership/distribution program for the Company's offerings which provide corporate-wide portals, both client/server and web-based, for Data-Exploitationä. Mr. Ovenden has extensive experience in technology development as well as in the provision of software solutions.
"For the past two years, we have painstakingly managed our expenses down, while carefully evolving the ongoing development of our software value proposition", commented Ron Sterne, Chief Executive & Operating Officer of SSI. "In order to bring on Shawn, who has been working for us on a consulting basis until now, Darryl Stackhouse and I elected to give up 25% of our share purchase options, and Shawn agreed to a sizable reduction in salary. This was necessary because the Company has approximately 8,500,000 shares outstanding, and the issue of share options is limited to 10% of the outstanding shares. In the same vein, the company was able to bring on Rob Marks to spearhead our Eastern Canadian partner/distribution initiative by way of Mr. Marks agreeing to a combination of a significantly reduced fee, together with share purchase options."
Mr. Sterne added, "Amongst his general responsibilities, Shawn's principle mandate is to assist our team to maximize shareholder value, with a key focus on securing a major distribution agreement. Management believes that the Company's software assets are compelling, as documented on the Company web-site. In our view, Shawn's timing is perfect. As another experienced, yet still relatively young professional, Shawn is the type of individual who has the skill sets and potential to determine a bright future for the company. Needless to say, Darryl and I are delighted that he has chosen to join us. Shawn's resume speaks for itself."
Mr. Ovenden previously served as Executive Director, Energy Practice for Online Business Systems, an IT consulting firm specializing in custom application development. He also worked for a number of years as the Sales and Marketing Manager for DIGITAL Equipment Canada, where he was responsible for the channels sales team, as well as the development and leadership of Digital's district marketing plan. Mr. Ovenden earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree, in Management Information Systems, from the University of Calgary, in 1984.
Sterne Stackhouse Inc. is a Canadian software development company providing corporations with business friendly software for accessing and exploiting their ongoing investment in corporate data-stores. Since 1981, SSI has focused on data retrieval and analysis. Labrador®, SSI's flagship product, provides 'easy to use' client/server, Internet, and wireless solutions. With Labrador®, business users and technologists of all skill levels, in any industry, can interact directly with all of their relational data sources.
SSI (www.sternestackhouse.com) trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX.V) under the ticker symbol SSX.
For more information contact:
Darryl Stackhouse
President & CFO
Sterne Stackhouse Inc.
403.263.6325
This release may contain forward-looking statements with risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those intended or anticipated by the Company. The Toronto Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA