Connova appoints new CEO

CONNOVA APPOINTS NEW CEO ConNova Group AB (Publ.) has appointed Christian Ekström as its new CEO. He joins the company from Edgecom, a wholly-owned consulting company within the Ericsson group that operates in the field of the mobile Internet, where he held the position of Senior Vice President and COO. Christian Ekström will assume his duties in the first quarter of 2001. ConNova´s present CEO and founder of the company, Björn Persson, will stay on the Board of ConNova and also intends to remain as a major shareholer of the company. "Over recent years we have been focusing heavily on developing BizManager, our flagship product within Customer Care and Billing. With a couple of large reference systems up and running, we have established a solid base for an increase in sales and expansion into new market segments. Christian Ekström has the combination of international experience from a large organisation and genuine industry expertise that ConNova needs for its next step in developments. I'm very pleased to be handing over the daily operations to Christian Ekström," says Björn Persson, present CEO of ConNova. "After reviewing ConNova's products, expertise and markets very thoroughly, I am convinced that the company has got what it takes to generate excellent future growth. The company has already been successful in developing a competitive product, which it has launched into the market. In my view, this is a perfect platform for the next step in our progress. ConNova has all that it needs to consolidate a long-term position as an attractive supplier of Customer Care and Billing services for pay TV. However, I believe that the major challenges and possibilities lie in the new segments that are sprouting up - for example within the fast-growing area of 3G mobile Internet services, which is a field I know well. I see tremendous opportunities in introducing ConNova's products and expertise into these segments too. This would give ConNova access to a considerably larger market in pace with operators introducing new services," says Christian Ekström. ConNova. ConNova specialises in developing and supplying business support systems for multimedia operators in the fields of pay-TV, the Internet, broadband and telecoms services. The company has 15 year's experience from the industry. ConNova's offering extends from consulting services to the development of software adapted to meet the very latest market requirements. Within the framework of ConNova TVX AB, the company also runs customer services on an assignment basis for European pay-TV operators. ConNova's present customers are mainly found in the fields of cable TV, DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), multimedia and telecommunications. At the international trade fair for billing systems in London in May 1999, ConNova's customer management system BizManager was awarded two honourable mentions, one for "Overall Best Contribution to Billing" and the other for "Most Innovative Billing Product". The ConNova Group AB (Publ) has been listed on the OM Stockholm Stock Exchange's O list since 1997. For further information, please contact: Björn Persson, Managing Director, ConNova Group Tel: +46 705 38 08 80, e-mail bp@connova.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/06/20001206BIT00760/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/06/20001206BIT00760/bit0002.pdf