Bob Mann, former European head of Siebel Systems, joins Close Partners as Chairman.

Paul Henry, Chief Executive says "it's a great endorsement of the Close Partners vision. We are determined to be Europe's first substantial provider of business development solutions to the ICT industry. With Bob's support in terms of strategy, investment funding and business development, I'm even more confident we're going to get there."

Bob says "Close Partners has an extremely exciting value proposition. I like the pan-European reach - and the mix of strategic consulting and high-impact field programs. And their outsourced 'virtual subsidiary' model will prove very compelling for technology companies where cost effective routes to market are critical to their success. Many vendors are going to continue to struggle to generate shareholder value - unless they find lower risk, lower cost, more flexible sales and marketing models."

About Bob Mann

Bob has spent over 23 years in the High Tech industry, the last 18 of which have been in software and services. In the last two years he has focused his time working with UK and European technology companies as a non-executive director and Chairman. In this role he has successfully complete two rounds of investment funding and managed a very complex merger and acquisition. He currently holds a number of directorships and advisory positions within the European technology industry. Having set up Siebel Systems in Europe, Bob has extensive experience in building sales and marketing operations for exceptionally fast growing software companies. Prior to Siebel Systems he was European Vice President for Legent with revenues of $175m and 500 people in Europe. He has a strong background in general and sales management with companies such as General Electric, Siebel, Interworld and Legent. He has experience of European-Wide sales and marketing specifically into Fortune 500 companies. He has built and managed Global sales channels and built strategic partnerships with companies such as IBM, Accenture, PWC and Andersen.

About Close Partners

Close Partners designs, builds, drives and manages high-performance, pan-European routes-to-market for enterprise-class technology vendors. Please visit www.closepartners.com for more information - or contact Paul Henry on +44 (0)7778 418785 or paul.henry@closepartners.com