New CEO at LärData AB

New CEO at LärData AB LärData is one of Sweden's leading companies for teacher-lead education within the IT-sector. It is owned, since September 1997, by the private equity firm Segulah and by the founder of LärData, Mr. Roger Sjöstrand. Lennart Ljungbäck, 40 years of age, has been appointed new CEO of LärData. He will commence on his new position on March 9, 1998. Mr. Ljungbäck has been the CEO of Mandator Edata AB since 1993. "The IT education business is rapidly changing. The traditional teacher-lead education is being complemented by self-learning options on CD-ROM and the education is adjusted to the companies' information flow. By combining modern methods of education with the well-known LärData pedagogics, we will offer a wide-ranging selection of the best IT-education courses." Lennart Ljungbäck, appointed CEO "I am very positive to Lennart Ljungbäck as new CEO of LärData. He has solid experience from the IT-sector in general, along with proven competence in business development and control. I am convinced that Lennart will strongly contribute to further strengthening of LärData's leading position on the IT- education market. Roger Sjöstrand, founder and resigning CEO ************* LärData was founded in 1983 by Roger Sjöstrand. The company today has a turnover in excess of SEK 100 million on 11 regional offices covering Sweden. LärData's growth has followed the penetration of PCs and their increased importance within the IT area. The market for education is growing, as are the requirements for knowledge development in order to realise productivity improvement from steadily increasing IT investments. Several surveys show that the critical factor for this is the user's knowledge. LärData's vision is to be a comprehensive total supplier of computer education. The company has a nation-wide co-operation program with Microsoft and is certified as a "Solution Provider", i.e. educator in Microsoft software. The teachers are certified as "Microsoft Certified Professionals" within different application software. LärData uses several different education forms, for instance client adjusted education, scheduled courses, seminars and multimedia supported education. AB Segulah is a private equity firm owned by its board of directors and management. Segulah invests in, and develops, established small and mid-sized companies in mature industries, preferably retail, service and light manufacturing. The business idea is to create value through active ownership and inject general business knowledge as well as financial and industrial experience into the company, in addition to the capital that the company may require. Segulah is the Swedish formal partner of Hambro European Ventures (HEV) Limited. Segulah I is a private equity fund of SEK 200 million managed by AB Segulah. It was formed in February 1997 with the purpose of investing in Swedish small and mid-sized companies. Investors in the fund are, among others, Inter-Ikea, Norsk Vekst AS (Norwegian quoted investment company), Prim Associates (American venture capital institution), Bonnier Group (Swedish media group), Cancerföreningen i Stockholm, and AB Segulah. The capital of the fund is to be invested over a 4-year period. LärData was Segulah I's first investment. Other investments of the fund include Teli Service AB (the leading work-shop service provider for IT-products in the Nordic Region) and EKH Ekonomihuset AB, Sweden's leading administrator and manager of pension foundations. AB Segulah is presently sole or part owner of, among others, Wilkenson Handskmakar'n AB, Ordning & Reda Papper & Design AB, and Byggfakta Scandinavia AB. For additional information please contact Gabriel Urwitz, or Christian Sievert at AB Segulah, phone +46-8-665 32 70, alternatively Roger Sjöstrand at LärData, phone number +46-8-729 77 07. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/02/23/19990503BIT00720/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1998/02/23/19990503BIT00720/bit0002.pdf